
Amii\ 



AND JUDAS ISCARIOT 



And Judas Iscariot 

Wi{h Otter Evangelistic Sermons 



J. Wilbur Chapman, D. D. 

Author of Present Day Parables, And Peter, Fishing for Men, The 
Secret of a Happy Day, Present Day Evangelism, etc., etc. 



Introduction by 

Parley E. Zartmann, D. D. 



Tke Winona Publishing Company 

Chicago Illinois 



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v^ 7 

.C4-1 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS) 
Two Cooies Received 
JM 2 1 907 

Capyrteht I 




Copyright 

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The Winona Publishing Company 



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CONTENTS 

._ And Judas Iscariot 11 

An Old-Fashioned Home 37 

The Swelling of Jordan 67 

^J> A Call to Judgment : m 79 

A Changed Life . , t 89 

The Lost Opportunity 103 

A Great Victory 113 

Paul a Pattern of Prayer . 137 

A Startling Statement 163 

The Grace of God 183 

Conversion 199 

Five Kings in a Cave 215 

Definiteness of Purpose in Christian Work . 237 

The Morning Breaketh 249 

An Obscured Vision 265 

The Compassion of Jesus 287 

San ctifi cation 309 

An Unheeded Warning 331 

The Approval of the Spirit 351 

A Reasonable Service 375 

The True Christian Life 391 



INTRODUCTION 

The sermons contained in this volume 
are published in response to numerous 
requests that they might be put into per- 
manent form. 

The author of these sermons needs no 
introduction to the Christian readers of 
America. His fame as an author, preacher 
and evangelist is more than national. 
As Director of the evangelistic work 
carried on by the General Assembly's 
Committee of the Presbyterian Church, 
he has achieved distinction as a preacher 
of the Gospel. Under his direction simul- 
taneous evangelistic campaigns have been 
held in many of the leading cities of the 
land, and the Christian Church and the 
world have had an experience of a new, 
aggressive and emphatic evangelism that 
has stirred the Church, revived Christian 
service and been the means under God 
of turning thousands to a life of allegiance 
to Jesus Christ. 

Therefore it is a privilege and pleasure 
to put into book form some of the sermons 
which Dr. Chapman has preached in his 



10 Introduction 

evangelistic work and also as the Director 
of the Interdenominational Bible Con- 
ference at Winona Lake, Indiana. Thou- 
sands have borne witness to the profound 
impression and enduring influence of those 
messages. Especially is this true of "And 
Judas Iscariot" and "An Old-Fashioned 
Home." One can never forget the scene 
when the latter sermon was preached on 
Thanksgiving Day, 1905, in the great thea- 
ter in Jersey City. Great numbers of men 
have confessed their sins and accepted 
Jesus Christ as a personal Savior follow- 
ing the preaching of "The Swelling of 
Jordan." 

The book is sent forth with devout 
gratitude to God for his blessing upon the 
preaching of these sermons, and with a 
prayer that even the reading of them may 
be attended with deeper devotion to 
Jesus Christ, and increasing service to 
those for whom Christ died. 

Parley E. Zartmann, 



AND JUDAS ISCARIOT 



AND JUDAS ISCARIOT 

Text: "And Judas IscarioL"— Mark 3: 19. 

There is something about the name of 
this miserable man which commands our 
attention at once. There is a sort of fasci- 
nation about his wickedness, and when we 
read his story it is difficult to give it up 
until we have come to its awful end. It is 
rather significant, it would seem to me, 
that his name should come last in the list 
of the Apostles, and the text, "And Judas 
Iscariot," would suggest to me not only 
that his name was last, but that it was 
there for some special reason, as I am sure 
we shall find out that it was. It is also 
significant that the first name mentioned 
in the list of the Apostles in this third 
chapter of Mark was Simon, who was 
surnamed Peter. 

The first mentioned Apostle denied 
Jesus with an oath, the one last referred 



12 And Judas Iscariot 

to sold him for thirty pieces of silver and 
has gone into eternity with the awful sin 
of murder charged against him. The 
difference between the two is this: their 
sins were almost equally great, but the 
first repented and the grace of God had 
its perfect work in him and he was the 
object of Christ's forgiveness; the second 
was filled with remorse without repen- 
tance and grace was rejected. The first 
became one of the mightiest preachers in 
the world's history; the second fills us 
with horror whenever we read the story of 
his awful crime. 

Different names affect us differently. 
One could not well think of John without 
being impressed with the power of love; 
nor could one consider Paul without be- 
ing impressed first of all with his zeal and 
then with his learning. Certainly one 
could not study Peter without saying that 
his strongest characteristic was his en- 
thusiasm. It is helpful to know that the 
Spirit of God working with one who was 
a giant intellectually and with one who 



And Judas Iscariot 13 

was profane and ignorant accomplished 
practically the same results, making them 
both, Paul and Peter, mighty men whose 
ministry has made the world richer and 
better in every w r ay. But to think of 
Judas is always to shudder. 

There is a kindred text in this same 
Gospel of Mark, but the emotions it stirs 
are entirely different. The second text 
is, "And Peter." The crucifixion is over, 
the Savior is in the tomb, poor Peter, 
a broken-hearted man, is wandering 
through the streets of the City of the 
King. He is at last driven to the company 
of the disciples, when suddenly there 
rushes in upon them the woman who had 
been at the tomb, and she exclaims, "He 
is risen, has gone over into Galilee and 
wants his disciples to meet him." This 
was the angel's message to her. All the 
disciples must have hurried to the door 
that they might hasten to see their risen 
Lord — all save Peter. And then came 
the pathetic and thrilling text, for the 
woman gave the message as Jesus gave it 



14 And Judas Iscariot 

to the angels and they to her, "Go tell his 
disciples — and Peter" 

But this text, "And Judas Iscariot," 
brings to our recollection the story of a 
man who lost his opportunity to be good 
and great; the picture of one who was 
heartless in his betrayal, for within sight 
of the Garden of Gethsemane he saluted 
Jesus with a hypocritical kiss; the recol- 
lection of one in whose ears to-day in 
eternity there must be heard the clinking 
sound of the thirty pieces of silver; and 
the account of one who died a horrible 
death, all because sin had its way with 
him and the grace of God was rejected. 

The scene connected with his calling is 
significant. Mark tells us in the third 
chapter of his Gospel that when Jesus 
saw the man with the withered hand 
,and healed him, he went out by the sea- 
side and then upon the mountain, and 
there called his Apostles round about 
him, gave them their commission and sent 
them forth to do his bidding. 

In Matthew the ninth chapter and the 



And Judas Iscariot 15 

thirty-sixth to the thirty-eighth verses, we 
are told that when he saw the multitudes 
he was moved with compassion, and he 
commissioned the twelve and sent them 
forth that they might serve as shepherds 
to the people who appeared to be shep- 
herdless. "Then saith he unto his disci- 
ples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but 
the laborers are few ; pray ye therefore the 
Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth 
laborers into his harvest." And then he 
sent the twelve forth. As a matter of fact 
the Scriptures concerning Judas are not 
so very full, but there is a good outline, 
and if one but takes the points presented 
and allows his imagination to work in the 
least, there is a story which is thrilling in 
its aw^fulness. 

The four Evangelists tell us of his call, 
and these are practically identical in their 
statement except concerning his names. 
Matthew and Mark call him the Betrayer; 
Luke speaks of him as a Traitor, while 
John calls him a Devil. The next thing 
we learn concerning him is his rebuke of 



16 And Judas Iscariot 

the woman who came to render her serv- 
ice to Jesus as a proof of her affec- 
tion. In John the twelfth chapter, the 
fourth to the sixth verse, we read, "Then 
saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, 
Simon's son, which should betray him, 
Why was not this ointment sold for three 
hundred pence, and given to the poor? 
This he said, not that he cared for the 
poor, but because he was a thief, and had 
the bag, and bare what was put therein. 5 ' 

Next we hear of him bargaining with 
the enemies of Jesus for his betrayal. The 
account is very full in Matthew, the 
twenty-sixth chapter the fourteenth to the 
sixteenth verse. "Then one of the twelve 
called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief 
priests, and said unto them, What will ye 
give me, and I will deliver him unto you? 
And they covenanted with him for thirty 
pieces of silver. And from that time he 
sought opportunity to betray him." 

Then we are told of his delivering Jesus 
into the hands of his enemies, in Matthew, 
the twenty-sixth chapter, the forty-seventh 



And Judas Iscariot 17 

to the forty-ninth verses: "And while he 
yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, 
came, and with him a great multitude, 
with swords and staves, from the chief 
priests and elders of the people. Now he 
that betrayed him gave them a sign, say- 
ing, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same 
is he: hold him fast. And forthwith he 
came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Master; 
and kissed him." And then finally comes 
his dreadful end, the account of his re- 
morse in Matthew, the twenty-seventh 
chapter, the third and the fourth verses. 
"Then Judas, w T hich had betrayed him, 
when he saw that he was condemned, 
repented himself, and brought again the 
thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests 
and elders, saying, I have sinned in that 
I have betrayed the innocent blood. And 
they said, What is that to us? see thou 
to that." And the statement of his suicide 
in Matthew, the twenty-seventh chapter, 
the fifth verse, "And he cast down the 
pieces of silver in the temple, and de- 
parted, and went and hanged himself." 



18 And Judas Iscariot 

i 
The natural question that comes to 
every student of the life of Judas must be, 
"Why was he chosen?" but as Joseph 
Parker has said, "We may well ask why 
were we chosen ourselves, knowing our 
hearts as we do and appreciating our 
weakness as we must." It has been said 
that if we study the Apostles we will 
find them representatives of all kinds of 
human nature, which would go to show 
that if we but yield ourselves to God, 
whatever we may be naturally, he can 
use us for his glory. It was here that 
Judas failed. I have heard it said that 
Jesus did not know Judas 5 real character 
and that he was surprised when Judas 
turned out to be the disciple that he was ; 
but let us have none of this spirit in the 
consideration of Jesus Christ. Let no man 
in these days limit Jesus' knowledge, for 
he is omniscient and knoweth all things. 
Let us not forget what he said himself con- 
cerning Judas in John the thirteenth 
chapter and the eighteenth verse, "I speak 



And Judas Iscariot 19 

not of you all; I know whom I have 
chosen ; but that the Scripture may be ful- 
filled, He that eateth bread with me hath 
lifted up his heel against me." Again, in 
the sixth chapter and the seventieth verse, 
" Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen 
you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" and 
finally, in the sixth chapter and the 
sixty-fourth verse, "But there are some of 
you that believe not. For Jesus knew 
from the beginning who they were that 
believed not, and who should betray him. " 
There were others who might have been 
chosen in his stead. The Apostles found 
two when in their haste they determined 
to fill the vacancy made by his betrayal. 
Acts 1:23-26, "And they appointed two, 
Joseph called Barsabas, who was sur- 
named Justus, and Matthias. And they 
prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which 
knowest the hearts of all men, shew 
whether of these two thou hast chosen, 
that he may take part of this ministry 
and apostleship, from which Judas by 
transgression fell, that he might go to his 



20 And Judas Iscariot 

own place. And they gave forth their 
lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias, and 
he was numbered with the eleven apos- 
tles." 

It seems to me that there can be no 
reason for his having been called of Christ 
except that he was to serve as a great 
warning to those of us who have lived 
since his day. There are many such warn- 
ings in the Scriptures. 

Jonah was one. God said to him, "Go 
to Nineveh/ 5 and yet, with the spirit of 
rebellion, he attempted to sail to Tarshish 
and we know his miserable failure. Let 
it never be forgotten that if Nineveh is 
God's choice for you, you can make no 
other port in safety. The sea will be 
against you, the wind against you. <It is 
hard indeed to struggle against God. 

Jacob was a warning. Deceiving his 
own father, his sons in turn deceived him. 
May we never forget the Scripture which 
declares, "Whatsoever a man soweth that 
shall he also reap." 

Esau was a warning. Coming in from 



And Judas Iscariot 21 

the hunt one day, weary with his exertions, 
he detects the savory smell of the mess of 
pottage, and his crafty brother says, "I 
will give you this for your birthright," 
which was his right to be a priest in his 
household; a moment more and the 
birthright is gone; and in the New Testa- 
ment we are told he sought it with tears 
and could find no place of repentance. 
But many a man has sold his right to be 
the priest of his household for less than a 
mess of pottage, and in a real sense it is 
true that things done cannot be undone. 

Saul was a warning. He was com- 
manded to put to death Agag and the 
flock, and he kept the best of all the flock 
and then lied to God's messenger when he 
said that the work had been done as he 
was commanded. He had no sooner said 
it than, behold, there was heard the bleat- 
ing of the sheep and the lowing of the 
oxen. "Be sure your sin will find you 
out/' 

The New Testament has many warn- 
ings like these in the Old, but Judas sur- 



22 And Judas Iscariot 

passes them all. There is something 
about him that makes us shudder. 

It is said that in Oberammergau, where 
the Passion Play is presented, the man 
taking the character of Judas is always 
avoided afterwards. He may have been 
ever so reputable a citizen, but he has 
been at least in action a Judas, and 
that is enough. 

I was once a pastor at Schuylerville, 
N. Y., where on the Burgoyne surrender 
ground stands a celebrated monument. 
It is beautiful to look upon. On one side 
of it in a niche is General Schuyler, and on 
the other side, if I remember correctly, 
General Gates; on the third, in the same 
sort of a niche, another distinguished gen- 
eral is to be seen, but on the fourth the 
niche is vacant. When I asked the reason 
I was told that "It is the niche which 
might have been filled by Benedict Arnold 
had he not been a traitor. " 

The story of Judas is like this. He 
might have been all that God could have 
approved of; he is throughout eternity 



And Judas Iscariot 23 

a murderer, and all because grace was 
rejected. Numerous lessons may be 
drawn from such a story. Certain things 
might be said concerning hypocrisy, for 
he was in the truest sense a hypocrite. 
Reference could be made to the fact 
that sin is small in its beginnings, sure 
in its progress, terrific in its ending, for 
at the beginning he was doubtless but 
an average man in sin, possibly not so 
different from the others; but he rejected 
the influence of Christ. Or, again, from 
such a character a thrilling story could 
be told of the end of transgressors, for 
hard as may be the way the end baffles 
description. Judas certainly tells us this. 

ii 

However much of a warning Judas 
may be to people of the world, I am 
fully persuaded that there are four things 
which may be said concerning him. 

First: He gives us a lesson as Chris- 
tians. There were many names given 
him. In Matthew the tenth chapter and 



24 And Judas Iscariot 

the fourth verse, and in Mark the third 
chapter and the nineteenth verse, we 
read that he was a betrayer; in Luke 
the sixth chapter and the sixteenth verse 
he was called a traitor; in John the 
sixth chapter and the seventieth verse he 
is spoken of as a devil, but in John the 
twelveth chapter and the sixth verse he 
is mentioned as a thief. To me however 
one of the best names that could be 
applied to him is that which Paul feared 
might be given to him when he said, 
"Lest when I have preached to others 
I myself should be [literally] disapproved" 
(1 Corinthians 9 : 27). It is indeed a 
solemn thought, that if we are not right 
with God he will set us aside, for he 
cannot use us. I have in mind a minister, 
who once thrilled great numbers of people 
with his message. Under the power of 
his preaching hundreds of people came 
to Christ. There was possibly no one 
in the Church with a brighter future. 
To-day he is set aside, for God cannot 
use him. I have in mind a Sunday 



And Judas Iscariot 25 

school superintendent, who used to be 
on every platform speaking for Christ, 
and then yielded to undue political in- 
fluence of the worst sort, lost his vision 
of Christ and his powder in speaking, and 
to-day is set aside. But of all the 
illustrations, I know of nothing which 
so stirs me as the story of Judas. He 
might have been true and faithful and 
he might have been w r ith Christ to-day 
in glory; instead, he is in hell, a self- 
confessed murderer, with the clinking 
of the thirty pieces of silver to condemn 
him, and his awful conscience constantly 
to accuse him. It is indeed enough to 
make our faces pale to realize that, what- 
ever we may be to-day in the service of 
God, we can be set aside in less than a 
week, and God will cease to use us if 
we have anything of the spirit of Judas. 
Second: I learn also from Judas that 
environment is not enough for the un- 
regenerate. It is folly to state that a poor 
lost sinner simply by changing his en- 
vironment jnay have his nature changed. 



26 And Judas Iscariot 

As John G. Woolley has said, "it is like 
a man with a stubborn horse saying, 
'I will paint the outside of the barn a nice 
mild color to influence the horse within.' ! 
The well on my place in the country 
some years ago had in it poisoned water. 
It was an attractive well with a house 
built around about it, and the neighbors 
came to me to say that I must under no 
circumstances drink from it. What if 
I had said, "I will decorate the well 
house that I may change the water?" 
It would have been as nonsensical as to 
say, "I will change the environment of 
a man who is wicked by nature, and 
thereby make him good." Judas had 
lived close to Jesus, he had been with 
him on the mountain, walked with him 
by the sea, was frequently with him, I 
am sure, in Gethsemane, for we read in 
John the eighteenth chapter and the 
second verse, "And Judas also, which 
betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus 
ofttimes resorted thither with his dis- 
ciples. 5 ' He was also with him at the 



And Judas Iscariot 27 

Supper. But after all this uplifting, 
heavenly influence of the Son of God he 
sold him for silver and betrayed him 
with a kiss. Nothing can answer for the 
sinner but regeneration. His case is hope- 
less without that. 

Third: Hypocrisy is an awful thing. 
The text in Galatians is for all such. 
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked." 
Those words in Matthew in connection 
with the sermon on the Mount are for 
such, when men in the great day shall 
say, "Have we not prophesied in thy 
name? and in thy name have cast out 
Devils? and in thy name done many 
wonderful works ?" Jesus will say, " I never 
knew you." If we read the commission 
in Matthew the tenth chapter the fifth 
to the twentieth verses inclusive, we shall 
understand that these Apostles were sent 
forth to do a mighty work, and evidently 
they did it. Judas had that commission, 
and he may have fulfilled it in a sense, 
but he is lost to-day because he was a 
hypocrite. The disciples may not have 



28 And Judas Iscariot 

known his true nature. In John the 
thirteenth chapter the twenty-first to the 
twenty-ninth verses we read, "When 
Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in 
spirit, and testified and said, Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, that one of you 
shall betray me. Then the disciples 
looked one on another, doubting of 
whom he spake. Now there was leaning 
on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, 
whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore 
beckoned to him, that he should ask who 
it should be of whom he spake. He then 
lying on Jesus 5 breast saith unto him, 
Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is 
to whom I shall give a sop when I have 
dipped it. And when he had dipped the 
sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son 
of Simon. And after the sop Satan 
entered into him. Then said Jesus unto 
him, That thou doest, do quickly. Now 
no man at the table knew for what intent 
he spake this unto him. For some of 
them thought, because Judas had the 
bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy 



And Judas Iscariot 29 

those things that we have need of against 
the feast; or that he should give some- 
thing to the poor." Which would seem 
to impress this thought upon us. Oh, 
may I say that it is a great sin to be untrue? 
The only time that Jesus is severe is not 
when sinners seek him out, nor when the 
woman taken in adultery is driven to 
him by those who would stone her with 
stones, nor with the thief on the Cross, 
but when he faces hypocrites; he can 
have no tenderness for them. 

Fourth: I learn from Judas that sin 
is of slow progress. There may have 
been first just a natural ambition. He 
thought that the Kingdom of Jesus was 
to be a great temporal affair, and he 
desired to be a part of it. How many 
men to-day have wrecked their homes 
and all but lost their souls, because of 
unholy ambitions! It may be an am- 
bition for your family as well as for your- 
self. Doubtless Jacob had such when he 
stopped at Shechem. The result of his 
tarrying was his heart-breaking experi- 



30 And Judas Iscariot 

ence with the worse than murder of his 
daughter. There are souls to-day in the 
lost world who were wrecked upon the 
rock of ambition. 

Fifth: He was dishonest. It is a short 
journey from unholy ambition to dishon- 
esty. The spirit of God Himself calls 
him a thief. But, 

Sixth : Let it be known that while sin 
is of slow progress, it is exceedingly sure. 
In the twenty-second chapter of Luke 
and the third to the sixth verses we read 
that Satan entered into Judas. It seems 
to me as if up to that time he had rather 
hovered about him, tempting him with 
his insinuations, possibly causing him 
to slip and fall in occasional sins, but 
finally he has control and then betrayal, 
denial and murder are the results. 

I looked the other day into the face of 
a man who said to me, "Do you know 
me?" and I told him I did not, and he 
said, "I used to be a Christian worker 
and influenced thousands to come to 
Christ. In an unguarded moment I de- 



And Judas Iscariot 31 

termined to leave my ministry and to 
become rich. My haste for riches was 
but a snare. I found myself becoming 
unscrupulous in my business life and now 
I am wrecked, certainly for time — oh/' 
said he, "can it be for eternity? I am 
separated from my wife and my children, 
whom I shall never see again. " And 
rising in an agony he cried out as I have 
rarely heard a man cry, " God have mercy 
upon me! God have mercy upon me!" 

in 

There are but three things that I would 
like to say concerning Judas as I come 
to the end of my message. 

The first is that he w r as heartless in 
the extreme. It was just after a touching 
scene recorded in Matthew the twenty- 
sixth chapter the seventh to the thirteenth 
verses, "There came unto him a woman 
having an alabaster box of very precious 
ointment, and poured it on his head, as 
he sat at meat. But when his disciples 
saw it, they had indignation, saying, To 
what purpose is this waste? For this 



32 And Judas Iscariot 

ointment might have been sold for much, 
and given to the poor. When Jesus 
understood it, he said unto them, Why 
trouble ye the woman? for she hath 
wrought a good work upon me. For ye 
have the poor always with you; but me 
ye have not always. For in that she hath 
poured this ointment on my body, she 
did it for my burial. Verily I say unto 
you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be 
preached in the whole world, there shall 
also this, that this woman hath done, be 
told for a memorial of her." It was after 
this that Judas went to the enemies of 
Jesus and offered to sell him, and as if 
that were not enough, it was just after he 
had left Gethsemane, in Matthew the 
twenty-sixth chapter the forty-fifth to 
the forty-ninth verses, that he betrayed 
him with his kiss. "Then cometh he to 
his disciples and saith unto them, Sleep 
on now, and take your rest; behold, the 
hour is at hand, and the Son of man is 
betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, 
let us be going : behold, he is at hand that 



And Judas Iscariot 33 

doth betray me. And while he yet spake, 
lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and 
with him a great multitude, with swords 
and staves, from the chief priests and 
elders of the people. Now he that be- 
trayed him gave them a sign, saying, 
Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: 
hold him fast. i\.nd forthwith he came to 
Jesus, and said, Hail, Master; and kissed 
him." The blood drops had just been 
rolling down the cheeks of the Master, 
for he sweat, as it were, great drops of 
blood; and I can quite understand how 
upon the very lips of Judas the condemn- 
ing blood may have left its mark. But do 
not condemn him; he is scarcely more 
heartless than the man who to-day rejects 
him after all his gracious ministry, his 
sacrificial death and his mediatorial work 
of nineteen hundred years. 

Second: His death was awful. Acts 
1: 18, "Now this man purchased a field 
w T ith the reward of iniquity; and falling 
headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, 
and all his bowels gushed out." I can 



34 And Judas Iscariot 

imagine him going out to the place 
where he is to end it all, remember- 
ing as he walked how Jesus had looked 
at him, recalling, doubtless, some of his 
spoken messages, and certainly remem- 
bering how once he had been with him 
in all his unfaithful ministry. All this 
must have swept before him like a great 
panorama, and with the vision of his 
betrayed Master still before him he 
swings himself out into the eternity; 
and then as if to make the end more 
terrible the rope broke and his body 
burst and his very bowels gushed forth. 
Oh, if it be true that the way of the trans- 
gressor is hard, in the name of God what 
shall we say of the end? 

Third : I would like to imagine another 
picture. What if instead of going out 
to the scene of his disgraceful death he 
had waited until after Jesus had risen? 
What if he had tarried behind some one 
of those great trees near the city 
along the way which he should walk, or, 
possibly on the Emmaus way? What if 



And Judas Iscariot 35 

he had hidden behind some great rock 
and simply waited? While it is true that 
he must have trembled as he waited, 
what if after it all he had simply thrown 
himself on the mercy of Jesus and had 
said to him, " Master, I have from the 
first been untrue; for thirty pieces of 
silver I sold thee and with these lips I 
betrayed thee with a kiss ; but Jesus, thou 
Son of David, have mercy upon me"? 
There would have been written in the 
New Testament Scriptures the most beau- 
tiful story that the inspired book con- 
tains. Nothing could have been so 
wonderful as the spirit of him who is 
able to save to the uttermost, and who 
never turned away from any seeking 
sinner, and he would, I am sure, have 
taken Judas in his very arms; he, too, 
might have given him a kiss, not of be- 
trayal, but of the sign of his complete 
forgiveness, and Judas might have shone 
to-day in the city of God as shines Joseph 
of Arimathaea, Paul the Apostle, Peter 
the Preacher, 



36 And Judas Iscariot 

The saddest story I know is the story 
of Judas, for it is the account of a man 
who resisted the grace of God and must 
regret it through eternity. 



AN OLD-FASHIONED HOME 

Text: "What have they seen in thy house?" — 
2 Kings 20: 15. 

If you will tell me what is in your own 
house by your own choice I will tell you 
the story of your home life and will be 
able to inform you whether yours is a 
home in which there is harmony and peace 
or confusion and despair. Let me read 
the names of the guests in your guest 
book, allow me to study the titles of the 
books in your library in which you have 
special delight, permit me to scan your 
magazines which you particularly like, 
allow me to listen to your conversation 
when you do not know that you are being 
overheard, give me the privilege of talking 
but for a moment to your servants, and 
make it possible for me to visit with your 
friends in whom you have particular de- 
light — and I will write a true story of what 
you have been, of what you are, and of 
what you will be but for the grace of God, 

37 



38 And Judas Iscariot 

even though I may not know you person- 
ally at all. In other words, whatever may 
be seen in your home determines what 
your home is. 

I was a man grown before I visited 
Washington, the capital of the nation. 
I was the guest of a member of the Presi- 
dent's Cabinet. Riding with him the first 
evening, when the moon was shining, we 
suddenly came upon the National Capitol, 
and I said to my host, "What in the world 
is that?" He said, with a smile, as if he 
pitied me, "That is the Capitol building, 
and that is the home of the nation." I am 
sure he was right in a sense, because the 
building is magnificent, and is in every 
way the worthy home of such a nation as 
ours; but I think I take issue with him, 
after careful thought, in his statement 
that the Capitol building is the home of 
the nation. I can recall a visit made to a 
home which was not in any sense palatial, 
where the old-fashioned father every 
morning and evening read his Bible, knelt 
in prayer with his household about him, 



An Old-Fashioned Home 39 

commended to God his children each by 
name, presented the servants at the throne 
of grace, and then sang with them all one 
of the sweet hymns of the church; and 
from the morning prayer they went forth 
to the day of victory, while from the even- 
ing prayer they went to sleep the undis- 
turbed sleep of the just, with the angels of 
heaven keeping watch over them. 

I recall another home in the State of 
Ohio where the father and mother were 
scarcely known outside of their own 
county. The size of their farm was ten 
acres, but they reared two boys and two 
girls w r hose mission has been world-wide 
and whose names are known wherever the 
church of Christ is known and wherever 
the English language is spoken. These, 
in the truest sense, are the homes of the 
nation, and such homes give us men and 
women as true as steel. 

Napoleon once was asked, "What is the 
greatest need of the French nation?" He 
hesitated a moment and then said, with 
marked emphasis, "The greatest need of 



40 And Judas Iscariot 

the French nation is mothers." If you 
will ask me the greatest need of America 
I could wish in my reply that I might 
speak with the power of a Napoleon and 
that my words might live as long, for I 
would say, the greatest need of the Amer- 
ican nation to-day is homes; not palatial 
buildings, but homes where Christ is hon- 
ored, where God is loved, and where the 
Bible is studied. 

A returned missionary, who had been 
for twenty-five years away from his home 
because he would not accept his furloughs, 
was asked after he had been in California 
for a little season what impressed him the 
most after his absence of a quarter of a 
century. The reporter expected him to 
say that he was impressed with the tele- 
phone system which bound houses and 
cities together, or that he was amazed at 
the wireless telegraphy, by means of which 
on the wave currents of the air messages 
were sent from one city to another; but 
the returned missionary expressed no such 
surprise. He said, "When I went away 



An Old-Fashioned Home 41 

from America almost every home had its 
family altar; now that I have returned I 
have watched very carefully and find that 
a family altar in a home is the exception 
and not the rule." Wherever this is true 
there is real cause for great alarm, for in 
proportion as the home fails the nation is 
in danger. 

Hezekiah had been sick unto death. 
The word of the Lord by the mouth of 
the Prophet came to him, saying, "Set 
thy house in order, for thou must die." 
Then he recovered for a season. The 
King of Babylon sent messengers to him, 
and when the messengers had gone Isaiah 
asked him the question of the text, "What 
have they seen in thy house?" 

The dearest and most sacred spot on 
earth is home. Around it are the most 
sacred associations, about it cluster the 
sweetest memories. The buildings are [ 
not always palatial, the furnishings are 
not always of the best, but when the home I 
is worthy of the name ladders are let down 
from heaven to those below, the angels of 



42 And Judas Iscariot 

f 

God come down, bringing heaven's bless- 
ing and ascend, taking earth's crosses. 
Such a home is the dearest spot on earth, 
because there your father worked and 
your -mother loved. There is no love 
which surpasses this. 

Some years ago, when the English sol- 
diers were fighting and a Scotch regiment 
came to assist, the Scotchmen, strangely 
enough, began to die in great numbers. 
The skill of the physicians was baffled. 
They could not tell why it was that there 
seemed to be such a rapid falling away of 
the men. But at last they discovered the 
cause. The Scotch pipers were playing 
the tunes that reminded the Scotchman 
of the heather and the hills, and they were 
dying of homesickness. When the music 
was changed the deaths in such large 
numbers almost instantly ceased. 

We are drifting away from our old- 
fashioned homes; fathers have grown too 
busy, mothers have delegated their God- 
given work to others. We have lost in- 
stead of gained. Wherever the homes are 



An Old-Fashioned Home 43 

full of weakness the government is in 
danger. The homes of our country are 
so many streams pouring themselves into 
the great current of moral and social life. 
If the home life is pure, then all is pure. 
I stand with that company of people to- 
day who believe that we are at the begin- 
ning of a great revival of religion, and I 
am persuaded that this revival is to be 
helped on not so much by preaching, 
though that is not to be ignored; nor by 
singing, though that in itself is useful ; but 
it is to be helped or hindered by the condi- 
tion of the homes in our land. 

i 
I have a friend, George R. Stuart, who 
says that when God himself would start a 
nation he made home life the deciding 
question. He selected Abraham as the 
head of the home, and in Genesis, the 
eighteenth chapter and the nineteenth 
verse, he gives the reason for this in these 
words: "For I know him, that he will 
command his children and his household 
after him." 



44 And Judas Iscariot 

There are two great principles which 
must prevail in every home : 

First: Authority, suggested by the word 
"command." 

Second : Example, suggested by the ex- 
pression, "He will command his children 
and his household after him." 

In order that one may rightly command 
he must himself be controlled or be able 
to obey an authority higher than his own. 
It is absolutely impossible for one to be 
the father he ought to be and not be a 
Christian, or to be worthy of the name of 
mother and not yield allegiance to Jesus 
Christ. If we are to set before those about 
us a right example, we cannot begin too 
soon. Your children are a reproduction 
of yourself, weakness in them is weakness 
in yourself, strength in them is but the re- 
production of your own virtue. 

A convention of mothers met some years 
ago in the city of Cincinnati and was 
discussing the question as to when one 
ought properly to begin to train the child 
for Christ. One mother said, "I begin at 



An Old-Fashioned Home 45 

six"; another suggested seven as the 
proper age; another said, "I begin when 
my child takes his first step, and thus 
point him to Christ, or when he speaks 
his first word I teach him the name of 
Jesus. " Finally an old saint arose and 
said, "You are all of you wrong; the time 
to begin to train the child is the generation 
before the child is born," and this we all 
know to be true. 

But the responsibility does not rest 
simply upon mothers; fathers cannot ig- 
nore their God-given position. Judge 
Alton B. Parker and his favorite grandson, 
Alton Parker Hall, five years old, narrowly 
escaped death by drowning in the Hudson 
River. For half an hour the two played 
in the water. Then Judge Parker took 
the boy for a swim into deep water. Plac- 
ing the boy on his back, he swam around 
for awhile, and then, deciding to float, 
turned over, seating the boy astride his 
chest. In this manner the judge floated 
a distance from the wharf before noticing 
it. Then he attempted to turn over again, 



46 And Judas Iscariot 

intending to swim nearer the shore. In 
the effort to transfer the boy to his back 
the little fellow became frightened and 
tightly clasped the judge about the neck. 
Judge Parker called to the boy to let go 
his hold, but the youth only held on the 
tighter, and, frightened at the evident dis- 
tress of the judge, began to whimper. In 
a few moments the grasp of the boy be- 
came so tight that Judge Parker could not 
breathe. He tried to shake the boy loose, 
and then attempted to break his grasp. 
The boy held on with the desperation of 
death, however, and every effort of the 
judge only plunged them both beneath 
the choking waves. With his last few 
remaining breaths, Judge Parker gave up 
the struggle and shouted for assistance. 
The mistake that the distinguished man 
made was that he went too far from shore 
with the boy. There are too many men 
to-day who are doing the same thing. 
They are going out too far in social life, 
they are too lax in the question of amuse- 
ments, they are too thoughtless on the sub- 



■An Old-Fashioned Home 47 

ject of dissipation. Some day they will 
stop, themselves recovering, but their boys 
will be gone. 

Example counts for everything in a 
home. If there is any blessing in my own 
life or others, if there has been any help- 
fulness in my ministry to others, I owe it 
all to my mother, who lived before me a 
consistent Christian life and died giving 
me her blessing; and to my father, who 
with his arms about me one day said, "My 
son, if you go wrong it will kill me." 
I was at one time under the influence of a 
boy older than myself and cursed with 
too much money. I had taken my first 
questionable step at least, and was on my 
way one night to a place which was at 
least questionable if not sinful. I had 
turned the street corner and ahead of me 
was the very gate to hell. Suddenly, as I 
turned, the face of my father came before 
me and his words rang in my very soul. 
If my father had been anything but a con- 
sistent Christian man I myself, I am sure, 
would have been far from the pulpit, 



48 And Judas Iscariot 

and might have been in the lost world. 
There are those who seem to think that 
the height of one's ambition is to amass 
a fortune, to build a palace or to acquire 
a social position. My friend, George R. 
Stuart, says you may build your palaces, 
amass your fortunes, provide for the satis- 
faction of every desire, but as you sit amid 
these luxurious surroundings waiting for 
the staggering steps of a son, or as you 
think of a wayward daughter, all this will 
be as nothing, for there is nothing that 
can give happiness to the parents of God- 
less, wayward children. Some one has 
said, "Every drunkard, every gambler, 
every lost woman once sat in a mother's 
lap, and the downfall of the most of them 
may be traced to some defect in home life/' 
The real purpose of every home is to 
shape character for time and eternity. 
The home may be one of poverty, the 
cross of self- sacrifice may be required, 
suffering may sometimes be necessary, 
but wherever a home fulfills this purpose 
it is overflowing with joy. One of my 



An Old-Fashioned Home 49 

friends has drawn the following picture 
which he says is fanciful, but which I 
think is absolutely true to life: 

Back in the country there is a boy who 
wants to go to a college and get an educa- 
tion. They call him a book-worm. Wher- 
ever they find him — in the barn or in the 
house — he is reading a book. "What a 
pity it is," they say, "that Ed cannot get 
an education!" His father, work as hard 
as he will, can no more than support the 
family by the products of the farm. One 
night Ed has retired to his room and there 
is a family conference about him. The 
sisters say, "Father, I wish you would 
send Ed to college ; if you will we will work 
harder than we ever did, and we will make 
our old dresses do." The mother says, 
"Yes, I will get along without any hired 
help; although I am not as strong as I 
used to be, I think I can get along without 
any hired help." The father says, "Well, 
I think by husking corn nights in the barn 
I can get along without any assistance." 
Sugar is banished from the table, butter 



50 And Judas Iscariot 

is banished from the plate. That family 
is put down on rigid, yea, suffering, econ- 
omy that the boy may go to college. 
Time passes on. Commencement day 
has come and the professors walk in on 
the stage in their long gowns and their 
classic but absurd hats. The interest 
of the occasion is passing on, and after 
a while it comes to a climax of interest 
as the valedictorian is introduced. Ed 
has studied so hard and worked so well 
that he has had the honor conferred 
upon him. There are rounds of applause, 
sometimes breaking into vociferation. It 
is a great day for Ed. But away back in 
the galleries are his sisters in their old 
plain hats and faded clothes, and the old- 
fashioned father and mother; dear me, 
she has not had a new hat for six years; 
he has not had a new coat for a longer 
time. They rise and look over on the 
platform, then they laugh and they cry, 
and as they sit down, their faces grow pale, 
and then are very flushed. Ed gets the 
garlands and the old-fashioned group in 



An Old-Fashioned Home 51 

the gallery have their full share of the 
triumph. They have made that scene 
possible, and in the day that God shall 
more fully reward self-sacrifice made for 
others, he will give grand and glorious 
recognition. "As his part is that goeth 
down to battle, so shall his part be that 
tarrieth by the stuff/ 5 

This experience describes a home in the 
truest sense of the word better than all the 
palaces the world has ever known where 
love is lacking and the spirit of God is gone. 

ii 

There are two great forces in every 
home. I speak of the father and the 
mother, not but that the children have 
their part in either making or breaking a 
household, but these two are the mightiest 
of agencies. 

The mother stands first. There are 
certain things which must be true of every 
mother. She must be a Christian. The 
father may fail if he must, but let the 
mother fail and God pity the children. 
She must be consistent. The children 



52 And Judas Iscariot 

may forget the inconsistencies of the father 
but when the mother fails the impression 
is lasting as time and almost as lasting as 
eternity. She must be prayerful. I do 
not know of anything that lifts so many 
burdens or puts upon the face such a look 
of beauty as the spirit of prayer. And she 
must study her Bible. When we pray we 
talk with God, but when we read the Bible 
God talks with us and every mother needs 
his counsel. 

A poor young man stood before a judge 
in a great court to be sentenced to death. 
When asked if he had anything to say, he 
bowed his head and said, "Oh, your 
honor, if I had only had a mother!" 

A mother's love is unfailing. When I 
was in Atlanta, Georgia, in October, 1904, 
a little girl and an old mother came to see 
the governor. They had met on the train, 
and the child agreed to take the old lady 
to see the governor of the State. They 
entered the governor's office and she spoke 
as follows: 

"I want to see the governor," was the 



An Old-Fashioned Home 53 

straightforward request of the little lady 
addressed to Major Irwin, the private 
secretary to the governor, as he inquired 
her errand. 

"That is the governor standing there. 
He w411 see you in a moment/' replied the 
major, indicating Governor Terrell stand- 
ing in the group. The governor went over 
to her. "What can I do for you, dear?" 
he asked. Throwing back her curls she 
opened wide her baby brown eyes and 
said: 

"Governor, it is not for me; it is for this 
old lady. Her name is Mrs. Hackett, and 
she wants to talk to you about pardoning 
her boy." This was said by a little lady 
of eleven, who spoke with all the grace 
and savoir-faire of a woman twice her age. 

In a voice choked with emotion, Mrs. 
Hackett began her tearful, scarcely audi- 
ble story and presented her petition for 
clemency for her boy. 

"Governor, have mercy on me," she be- 
gan, and threw back her bonnet, showing 
a face wrinkled by age and furrowed and 



54 And Judas Iscariot 

drawn by suffering, "and give me back 
my boy/ 5 

Breaking down under the strain of talk- 
ing to the governor, whom she had 
planned for months to see, the pleading 
mother gave way to her grief. The gov- 
ernor was visibly moved, and continued 
to stroke the curly hair of Mrs. Hackett's 
little guide. "Give me back my boy. I 
am an old woman, going on seventy-nine, 
and I cannot be here long. I know I am 
standing with one foot in the grave, and I 
do want to hear my boy, my baby, say to 
me, 'Ma, I'm free/ Let me go down on 
my knees to you and beg that you have 
mercy on a mother's breaking heart. 
During the last month I picked five hun- 
dred pounds of cotton and made two dol- 
lars to get here to see you. I got here with- 
out a cent, and this little angel gave me a 
dollar — her all. I don't care if I have to 
walk back home, for I've seen you and 
told you of my boy." 

With unsteady voice the governor told 
her the law, and referred her gently to the 



An Old-Fashioned Home 55 

prison commission, assuring her that they 
would give her petition the most consid- 
erate attention. I am told that when the 
books were examined the crime was found 
to be one of the blackest on the calendar, 
and yet the mother loved him. 

Her love always stimulates love. It 
lasts when everything else fails. A man 
cannot wander so far from God as to for- 
get his mother, or go so deep in sin as to 
be unmindful of her sweet influence. 

The following is a sketch, full of touch- 
ing interest, of a little ragged newsboy who 
had lost his mother. In the tenderness of 
his affection for her he was determined 
that he would raise a stone to her memory. 

His mother and he had kept house to- 
gether and they had been all to each other, 
but now she was taken, and the little fel- 
low's loss was irreparable. Getting a stone 
was no easy task, for his earnings were 
small; but love is strong. Going to a 
cutter's yard and finding that even the 
cheaper class of stones was far too ex- 
pensive for him, he at length fixed upon 



56 And Judas Iscariot 

a broken shaft of marble, part of the re- 
mains of an accident in the yard, and 
which the proprietor kindly named at such 
a low figure that it came within his means. 
There was much yet to be done, but the 
brave little chap was equal to it. 

The next day he conveyed the stone 
away on a little four-wheeled cart, and 
managed to have it put in position. The 
narrator, curious to know the last of the 
stone, visited the cemetery one afternoon, 
and he thus describes what he saw and 
learned : 

"Here it is/ 5 said the man in charge, 
and, sure enough, there was our monu- 
ment, at the head of one of the newer 
graves. I knew it at once. Just as it was 
when it left our yard, I was going to say, 
until I got a little nearer to it and saw what 
the little chap had done. I tell you, boys, 
when I saw it there was something blurred 
my eyes, so's I couldn't read it at first. 
The little man had tried to keep the lines 
straight, and evidently thought that cap- 
itals would make it look better and bigger, 



An Old-Fashioned Home 57 

for nearly every letter was a capital. I 
copied it, and here it is; but you want to 
see it on the stone to appreciate it: 

MY MOTHER 

SHEE DIED LAST WEAK 

SHEE WAS ALL I HAD. SHEE 

SED SHEAD Bee WaiTING FUR — 

and here the boy's lettering stopped. After 
awhile I went back to the man in charge 
and asked him what further he knew of 
the little fellow who brought the stone. 
"Not much/' he said; "not much. Didn't 
you notice a fresh little grave near the one 
with the stone? Well, that's where he is. 
He came here every afternoon for some 
time working aw-ay at that stone, and one 
day I missed him, and then for several 
days. Then the man came out from the 
church that had buried the mother and 
ordered the grave dug by her side. I 
asked if it w T as for the little chap. He said 
it was. The boy had sold all his papers 
one day, and was hurrying along the street 
out this way. There was a runaway team 



58 And Judas Iscariot 

just above the crossing, and — well — he 
was run over, and lived but a day or two." 
He had in his hand when he was picked 
up an old file sharpened down to a point, 
that he did all the lettering with. They 
said he seemed to be thinking only of that 
until he died, for he kept saying, "I didn't 
get it done, but she'll know I meant to 
finish it, won't she? I'll tell her so, for 
she'll be waiting for me," and he died with 
those words on his lips. When the men 
in the cutter's yard heard the story of the 
boy the next day, they clubbed together, 
got a good stone, inscribed upon it the 
name of the newsboy, which they suc- 
ceeded in getting from the superintendent 
of the Sunday school which the little fel- 
low attended, and underneath it the touch- 
ing words: "He loved his mother." 

God pity the mother with such an in- 
fluence as this if she is leading in the wrong 
direction! 

It is necessary also to say just a word 
about the father. There are many pic- 
tures of fathers in the Bible. Jacob gives 



An Old-Fashioned Home 59 

us one when he cries, "Me ye have bereft 
of my children." 

David gives another when he cries, 
"O Absalom, my son." The father of 
the Prodigal adds a new touch of beauty 
to the picture when he calls for the best 
robe to be put upon his boy. I allow no 
one to go beyond me in paying tribute to 
a mother's love, but I desire in some 
special way to pay tribute to the devotion 
and consistency of a father. 

There are special requisites which must 
be made without which no father can 
maintain his God-given position. He 
must be a Christian. I rode along a 
country road with my little boy some time 
ago. I found that he was speaking to my 
friends just as I spoke to them. One man 
called my attention to it and said, "It is 
amusing, isn't it?" To me it was anything 
but amusing. If my boy is to speak as I 
speak, walk as I walk, then God help me 
to walk as a Christian. 

He must be a man of prayer. No man 
can bear the burdens of life or meet its 



60 And Judas Iscariot 

responsibilities properly if he is a stranger 
to prayer. 

He must be a man of Bible study. One 
of the most priceless treasures I have is a 
Bible my father studied, the pages of 
which he turned over and over, and which 
I never used to read without a great heart 
throb. 

"I con its pages o'er and o'er; 
Its interlinings mark a score 
Of promises most potent, sweet, 
In verses many of each sheet; 
Albeit the gilding dull of age, 
And yellow-hued its every page, 
No book more precious e'er may be 
Than father's Bible is to me. 

"Its tear-stained trace fresh stirs my heart 
The corresponding tear to start; 
Of trials, troubles herein brought, 
For comfort never vainly sought, 
For help in sorest hour of need, 
For love to crown the daily deed, 
No book more precious e'er may be 
Than father's Bible is to me." 

He must also erect in his house a family 
altar. I know that many business men 



An Old-Fashioned Home 61 

will say this is impossible, but it is not im- 
possible. If your business prevents your 
praying with your children, then there 
must be something wrong with your busi- 
ness. If your life prevents it, then you 
ought to see to it that your life is made 
right and that quickly. 

My friend, George R. Stuart, one 
of the truest men I know, gave me the 
following picture of a Christian home. 
He said: "When I was preaching in 
Nashville, at the conclusion of my sermon 
a Methodist preacher came up and laid 
his hand upon my shoulder and said, 
'Brother Stuart, how your sermon to-day 
carried me back to my home ! My father 
was a local preacher, and the best man 
I ever saw. He is gone to heaven now. 
We have a large family; mother is still at 
home, and I should like to see all the 
children together once more and have you 
come and dedicate our home to God, 
while we all rededicate ourselves to God 
before precious old mother leaves. If you 
will come with me, I will gather all the 



62 And Judas Iscariot 

family together next Friday for that pur- 
pose/ I consented to go. The old home 
was a short distance from the city of Nash- 
ville. There were a large number of 
brothers and sisters. One was a farmer; 
one was a doctor; one was a real estate 
man; one was a bookkeeper; one was a 
preacher; and so on, so that they repre- 
sented many professions of life. The 
preacher brother took me out to the old 
home, where all the children had gath- 
ered. As we drove up to the gate I saw the 
brothers standing in little groups about 
the yard, whittling and talking. Did 
you never stand in the yard of the old home 
after an absence of many years, and en- 
tertain memories brought up by every 
beaten path and tree and gate and build- 
ing about the old place ? I was introduced 
to these noble-looking men who, as the 
preacher brother told me, were all mem- 
bers of churches, living consistent Chris- 
tian lives, save the younger boy, who had 
wandered away a little, and the real object 
of this visit was to bring him back to God. 



An Old-Fashioned Home 63 

"The old mother was indescribably 
happy. There was a smile lingering in 
the wrinkles of her dear old face. We all 
gathered in the large, old-fashioned family 
room in the old-fashioned semicircle, with 
mother in her natural place in the corner. 
The preacher brother laid the large 
family Bible in my lap and said, 'Now, 
Brother Stuart, you are in the home of a 
Methodist preacher; do what you think 
best. 5 

"I replied, 'As I sit to-day in the family 
of a Methodist preacher, let us begin our 
service with an old-fashioned experience 
meeting. I want each child, in the order 
of your ages, to tell your experience. 5 The 
oldest arose and pointed his finger at the 
oil portrait of his father, hanging on the 
wall, and said in substance about as fol- 
lows : 'Brother Stuart, there is the picture 
of the best father God ever gave a family. 
Many a time he has taken me to his secret 
place of prayer, put his hand on my head, 
and prayed for his boy. And at every turn 
of my life, since he has left me, I have felt 



64 And Judas Iscariot 

the pressure of his hand on my head, and 
have seen the tears upon his face, and 
have heard the prayers from his trembling 
lips. I have not been as good a man 
since his death as I ought to have been, 
but I stand up here to-day to tell you and 
my brothers and sisters and my dear old 
mother that I am going to live a better life 
from this hour until I die/ Overcome 
with emotion, he took his seat, and the 
children in order spoke on the same line. 
Each one referred to the place of secret 
prayer and the father's hand upon the 
head. At last we came to the youngest 
boy, who, with his- face buried in his 
hands, was sobbing and refused to speak. 
The preacher brother very pathetically 
said, 'Buddy, say a word; there is no one 
here but the family, and it will help 
you. 5 

"He arose, holding the back of his chair, 
and looked up at me and said, 'Brother 
Stuart, they tell me that you have come 
to dedicate this home to God ; but my old 
mother here has never let it get an inch 



An Old-Fashioned Home 65 

from God. They tell you that this meet- 
ing is called that my brothers and sisters 
may dedicate their lives to God, but they 
are good. I know them. I am the only 
black sheep in this flock. Every step I 
have wandered away from God and the 
life of my precious father, I have felt his 
hand upon my head and heard his blessed 
words of prayer. To-day I come back to 
God, back to my father's life, and so help 
me God, I will never wander away again/ 

"Following his talk came a burst of 
sobbing and shouting, and I started that 
old hymn, 'Amazing grace (how sweet the 
sound!) that saved a wretch like me !' etc., 
and we had an old-fashioned Methodist 
class-meeting, winding up with a shout. 
As I walked away from that old home- 
stead I said in my heart, Tt is the salt of a 
good life that saves the children. 5 A boy 
never gets over the fact that he had a good 
father." 

"What have they seen in thy house?" 
If we are to help our children for time and 
eternity, our homes must be better, our 



66 And Judas Iscariot 

lives must be truer, our ambition to do 
God's will must be supreme. When these 
conditions are met it will be possible for 
us to answer the question of the text. 



THE SWELLING OF JORDAN 

Text: "How wilt thou do in the swelling of 
Jordan?"— Jer. 12:5. 

High up in the mountains of Anti-Leb- 
anon a famous river was born which was 
to play so important a part in the history 
of God's people that it would not have 
been strange if the birds of heaven had 
chanted their praises when first it began 
its journey. From four different places in 
the mountain the stream starts. Then 
the four streams become one, and in a 
single channel the river makes its way 
across the plain. 

There are two chief characteristics 
which must be borne in mind. The first is 
that a part of its journey is through a 
rocky country, and caves are on either side 
of the river, sometimes one above another; 
frequently three caves are to be seen 
one above another. The other charac- 
teristic is that it overflows its banks in all 

67 



68 And Judas Iscariot 

the time of harvest. These two things 
must be kept in mind if the text would 
teach its lesson. 

There are certain people who will al- 
ways remember the river Jordan — -the 
children of Israel first of all, because it 
separated them from the Promised Land ; 
and while scripturally Canaan does not 
stand for Heaven, yet in the mind of 
many it does, and the Jordan typifies an 
experience which stands between us and 
the future. Naaman will remember it, 
for when he came as a leper to the servant 
of God he was bidden to wash seven times 
in this river. At first he rebelled against 
the thought, finally he entered the stream, 
bathed twice, three times, four, five, six 
times, and was still a leper; but you will 
remember the word of the Lord, seven 
times must he bathe, and when the seventh 
plunge was taken, behold, his flesh was as 
the flesh of a little child ! No man need 
expect to have light and peace and power 
or eternal life until he has fulfilled all the 
commands of God. 



The Swelling of Jordan 69 

The wild beasts frequently make their 
way to these caves as a place of refuge. 
When the waters begin to rise they are 
driven out, when they go to the higher 
cave, and then to the highest of all, and 
the waters constantly rising fill this cave 
and they are overpowered and put to 
death. Thev are an illustration for us. 
Men of to-day are in caves of different 
sorts; some in the cave of dissipation, 
others in the cave of infidelity, and still 
others in the cave of morality. One day 
the waters of judgment will begin to rise, 
and it w r ill be an awful thing to stand in 
terror before God, driven forth without 
refuge. 

i 

Dissipation. "I am in the clutch of an 
awful sin," wrote some one to me recently, 
whether man or woman I cannot tell, but 
this was the story: 

Three years before the writer had been 
free, and then in an unguarded moment 
had gone down. Now came the pathetic 
cry, "I am helpless and hopeless." I do 



70 And Judas Iscariot 

not know what the sin was, but it makes 
no difference; any sin can bind us if we 
but yield to it. Under the subject of dis- 
sipation I do not speak of drinking as the 
worst of sins, because it is not the worst, 
by any means. I had a thousand times 
rather admit to my home the drunkard 
who has been cursed with his appetite than 
to admit there the man who is lecherous, 
who possibly stands high in society and in 
the business world, but whose sin is great 
and whose heart is vile beyond descrip- 
tion. I speak of drinking because it is 
the most common of sins. 

John B. Gough ^cries out concerning 
this sin, "I do not speak of it boastingly," 
said he, "for I have known what the curse 
of strong drink is ; I have felt it in my own 
life and seen it in others, but I say the 
truth, let the bread of affliction be given 
me to eat, take away from me the friends 
of my old age, let the hut of poverty be 
my dwelling place, let the wasting hand 
of disease be placed upon me, let me live 
in the whirlwind and dwell in the storm, 



The Swelling of Jordan 71 

when I would do good let evil come upon 
me — do all this, merciful God, but save me 
from the death of a drunkard." When he 
would speak in such language, God pity 
the man who yields to such a sin. 

It may be that gambling is your weak 
point. When I was in Colorado a young 
man who was a graduate of Harvard, the 
honor man of his class, and who had re- 
cently buried his wife, sat at the gambling 
table, staked his last dollar and lost it; 
then deliberately put up his little child 
and lost her; and then, in despair, blew 
out his brains and sent his soul to hell. 
When such a man of culture and training 
would go down under such a sin, God pity 
the man who yields to it. 

Or it may be licentiousness, that sin 
w r hich makes men lower than the beasts 
of the field, from which one can scarcely 
break away. I do not know what the sin 
may be that clutches your life, but if you 
have given way to it and rejected Christ, 
how w r ilt thou do in the swelling of Jor- 
dan, when the waters rise higher and 



72 And Judas Iscariot 

higher and you are without Christ and 
without hope? 

ii 

Some are in the cave of infidelity. That 
there are honest skeptics in the world we 
all believe, and the honest skeptic is one 
who says, "I cannot believe as you do, and 
I do not know that I w r ould if I could, 
but if your hope is any comfort to you, 
then cling to it and go down to your grave 
trusting in it." 

The dishonest skeptic is the man who 
sneers at my faith, who laughs at the old- 
fashioned religion, who says that once he 
believed in it but has^ grown away from it, 
seemingly forgetting that the greatest men 
the country has ever produced have been 
humble followers of Jesus of Nazareth. 
Infidelity does not satisfy. It leaves an 
aching void in life and mocks us in death. 
Besides, it is deceiving and the talk of the 
infidel orator is deceiving. Said one of 
the most eloquent not many years ago, 
"When I think of the Christian's God and 
the Christian's Bible, I am glad I am not 



The Swelling of Jordan 73 

a Christian. I had rather be the humblest 
German peasant that ever lived, sitting in 
his cottage, vine clad, from which the 
grapes hang, made purple by the kiss of 
the sun as the day dies out of the sky, shod 
with wooden shoes, clad in homespun, 
at peace with the world, his family about 
him, with never a thought of God — I say 
the truth I had rather be such a peas- 
ant than any Christian that I have ever 
known." And when he said it the people 
cheered him. It was, however, but the 
trick of an orator. Let us change the 
sentences and give a new ring to the 
thought. "When I think of what infidel- 
ity would do I am glad I am not an infidel ; 
how it would rob me of the hope of seeing 
my mother and meeting again my child; 
how it would take me in despair to the 
grave and send me away with a broken 
heart — I say I am glad I am not an infidel. 
I had rather be the humblest German 
peasant that ever lived, sitting in his cot- 
tage, vine clad, from which the grapes 
hang, made purple by the kiss of the sun 



74 And Judas Iscariot 

as the day dies out of the sky, clad in 
homespun, shod with wooden shoes, at 
peace with the world and at peace with 
God, his family Bible upon his knees, the 
look of ineffable joy in his face and singing 
that grand old hymn of Luther's, 'A mighty 
fortress is our God' — I had rather be such 
a German peasant than to be the mighti- 
est infidel the w^orld has ever known," and 
so I would, a thousand thousand times. 
God pity you if you allow yourself to put 
Christ out of your life and stand in the 
midst of the rising floods with no hope in 
him! How wilt thou do in the swelling 
of Jordan? 

in 

Some are in the cave of morality. It 
seems a strange thing to have a word to 
say against it, only when we remember 
that he that offends in one point is guilty 
of all, and when we remember God's word 
as he has declared, "Cursed is every one 
that continueth not in all the things writ- 
ten in the Book of the law to do them. " 



The Swelling of Jordan 75 

Then the question for the moralist is this, 
"Have you ever offended in one point?" 

A splendid steamer was launched on 
Lake Champiain. She made her way 
safely across the lake and started back, 
when a storm came upon her, the engines 
were disabled and she drifted to the rocks. 
"Out with the anchor," said the captain, 
and the command was obeyed, but still 
she drifted, and although the anchor was 
down she crashed against the rocks with 
an awful force, and all because the anchor 
chain was three feet too short. Your 
morality so far as it goes may be a good 
thing, but it does not reach the standard 
of God, nor can it until you are safely 
united to Christ; and if you have put 
him out of your life and stand alone in 
the midst of the rising floods, then how 
wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan? 

Sin is a terrible thing. It not only 
blights our hopes and prospects for the 
future, but it wrecks the strongest char- 
acters. One has only to open his eyes to 
see, if he will but look abroad, what dread- 



76 And Judas Iscariot 

ful havoc this awful evil hath wrought in 
the world, and yet the wonderful thing is 
that "God so loved the world that he 
gave his only begotten Son that whoso- 
ever believeth in him should not perish 
but have everlasting life/ 5 and no matter 
how dreadful the wreck or how awful the 
ruin, Jesus Christ comes seeking to save 
that which was lost. 

Major Whittle used to tell the story of 
the aged Quaker named Hartmann whose 
son had enlisted in the army. There came 
the news of a dreadful battle, and this old 
father, in fear and trembling, started to 
the scene of conflict that he might learn 
something concerning his boy. The 
officer of the day told him that he had not 
answered to his name, and that there was 
every reason to believe that he was dead. 
This did not satisfy the father, so, 
leaving headquarters, he started across 
the battlefield, looking for the one who 
was dearer to him than life. He would 
stoop down and turn over the face of this 
one and then the face of another, but 



The Swelling of Jordan 77 

without success. The night came on, 
and then with a lantern he continued his 
search, all to no purpose. Suddenly the 
wind, which was blowing a gale, extin- 
guished his lantern, and he stood there in 
the darkness hardly knowing what to do 
until his fatherly ingenuity, strength and 
affection prompted him to call out his son's 
name, and so he stood and shouted, "John 
Hartmann, thy father calleth thee. " All 
about him he would hear the groans of 
the dying and some one saying, "Oh, if 
that were only my father. " He continued 
his cry w T ith more pathos and power until 
at last in the distance he heard his boy's 
voice crying tremblingly, "Here, father." 
The old man made his way across the 
field shouting out, "Thank God ! Thank 
God !" Taking him in his arms, he bore 
him to headquarters, nursed him back to 
health and strength, and he lives to-day. 
Over the battlefield of the slain this day 
walks Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crying 
out to all who are wrecked by this awful 
power, "Thy Father calleth thee," and if 



78 And Judas Iscariot 

there should be but the faintest response 
to his cry he would take the lost in his 
arms and bear them home to heaven. 
Will you not come while he calls to-day? 



A CALL TO JUDGMENT 

Text: "I call heaven and earth to record this day 
against you, that I have set before you life and death, 
blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both 
thou and thy seed may live'' — Deut. 30: 19. 

Moses was a wonderful man; whether 
you view him as a poet or as a leader of 
men, he is alike great. This text was 
spoken by him to the people of Israel at 
the close of his career. The leadership of 
God's chosen people is now to be trans- 
ferred to Joshua, and it is in order that he 
may speak to them as they should 
be addressed, and at the same time in 
order that he may free himself from judg- 
ment, that he speaks as he does. 

I have two great desires as I present 
this message. 

First, that I might myself be faithful, 
and that it might be said that I am free 
from the blood of all men, for I have not 
shunned to declare unto you the whole 
counsel of God. 

79 



80 And Judas Iscariot 

Second, that I might help some one 
to the knowledge of Christ. This is 
no time for argument, for argument 
always calls forth discussion. It is no 
time for theory. Practical, every-day 
people of the world care nothing for 
mere theories. And it is no time for 
speculation, for to give such to the 
people is like giving a stone when they 
have asked for bread. But it is time 
for eternal choice. The audience of 
the preacher vanishes when he thinks 
of the text and its meaning and he is 
face to face with the Judgment when 
he shall be judged for the way he has 
spoken, and the people shall be called 
to account for the way they have heard. 
It is indeed a solemn word. "I call 
heaven and earth to record this day 
against you, that I have set before 
you life and death, blessing and curs- 
ing: therefore choose life, that both thou 
and thy seed may live." 

i 

Record. I desire to use this word 



A Call to Judgment 81 

as if it were a noun for the time being, 
for it will bring to us the same truth. 
This leads me to say that every one is 
making a record, either good or bad. 
Deep down through the surface of the earth 
you will find the evidence of storms cen- 
turies ago; the record was indelibly made. 

Two records are being kept. This 
is indicated in the twentieth chapter 
of Revelation, where it is said, "And 
the books were opened. " Notice that 
it is plural and not singular. There 
is a record in heaven kept by the Re- 
cording Angel. If it were in the mem- 
ory of God it would be an awful thing, 
for while God does not remember for- 
given sin, he cannot, from the very 
nature of the case, forget unpardoned 
sin, and if that is the record one day 
we shall meet it face to face. 

There is also a record upon earth. 
We have seen it in the characters of 
men who have gone astray, and in the 
faces of those who have been affected 
by their sins. 



82 And Judas Iscariot 

In an eastern city where I was preach- 
ing my attention was called to a young 
man of brilliant prospects. He was a 
member of a great wholesale grocery 
firm, and young men looked at him 
almost with envy; but he began to 
drink, and at the end of a year the 
senior partner called him in to say 
that he must change his conduct or 
retire from the firm. He made prom- 
ises only to break them, and finally, 
going from bad to worse, he was forced 
to retire. One morning we read the 
news in the paper that his bloated body 
had been found floating in the Hudson 
river; and his old father, up to a few 
years ago, walked up and down the 
streets with bowed head, giving every 
evidence of an almost broken heart. 
Sin is an awful thing and makes its 
record on whatever it touches. 

ii 

Two Ways. There are just two ways 
in this world along which men may 



A Call to Judgment 83 

walk, and they are not parallel ways. 
I used to have that idea, but I am sure it 
is wrong. As a matter of fact, it is but 
one way; going in one direction is death, 
and in the opposite direction is life. 

First: Away from God, away from 
his love, every step only leads us farther 
from Him — not because of anything he 
is, but because of what we have done 
ourselves. 

A father in the South sent his boy to 
a northern university, and for seven 
years he was away from the restraints of 
his home. Then he came back with his 
diploma but with the habit of intem- 
perance fastened upon him. It seemed 
impossible for him to break it, and 
his old father was fairly crushed. His 
mother broke her heart and died, all 
because of her boy. And yet the father 
loved him. One day the old father 
stepped from his carriage in the town 
in which he lived. The son was heard 
to make a request of him, and when 
evidently it was refused the boy turned 



84 And Judas Iscariot 

and struck him full in the face. The 
old father staggered and would have 
fallen to the walk except for assistance. 
He entered his carriage, drove back 
to his home, the servants saw him go 
out into the grove where his wife was 
buried, throw himself on the grave and 
shriek aloud. Some time later the boy 
returned and the father met him at 
the door to say, "You must go away; 
you have disgraced my name and killed 
your mother and broken my heart." 
This is the measure of a father's love 
perhaps in this one instance, but think 
how many times you have trifled with 
God, spurned his love, disregarded his 
Son, and yet he has loved you. And 
remember also that word which says, 

" There is a time, we know not when, 
A place, we know not where, 
That seals the destiny of men 
For glory or despair. " 

Second: Towards God. How easy a 
thing it is, therefore, to be saved if there 
is but one way and this way runs in oppo- 



A Call to Judgment 85 

site directions, meaning either life or 
death. It is just to "right about face/' 
as the soldier would say, by an act of 
the will and with the help of God to 
turn away from sin and from self. 
I am very sure we can do it, because 
it is commanded in this text, and God 
would not mock us with a command 
which could not be obeyed. I am equally 
sure that we must do it now, for God 
has plainly stated this in his Word. 

in 

Choose Life. As has been indicated, 
the text proves that we may choose life 
if we will, but I have more especially 
in mind the question, "Why should we 
do it?" and I answer, because it is the 
best sort of life and the only life. 

One of my friends used to tell of a 
man whom he saw in Colonel Clarke's 
mission. The man rose for prayers and 
accepted Christ. Later on he saw him 
again in the mission. He went for- 
ward to testify. He had that look upon 
his face the result of sin, because of 



86 And Judas Iscariot 

which you could not tell whether he 
was young or old, and leaning up against 
the platform he gave his testimony. 
Among other things he said: "I came 
to Chicago some little time ago from 
my home in the east, my father having 
made two requests — first, that I should 
change my name because I had disgraced 
his; second, that I should go away and 
never return. I had fallen too low 
here for them to receive me even in the 
station house, and I was on my way 
to end it all when I heard the music of 
this mission and came in and found 
Christ. As I came xlown the aisle this 
evening I heard one man say to another, 
'He is getting paid for this,' and I wish 
to say that I am. I have a letter in 
my pocket from my father, and he 
tells me that I cannot come home too 
soon for him. Boys, I am getting paid. 
I have a sister at home whose name I 
would hardly dare to have taken upon 
my impure lips, and she writes me that 
every day she has prayed for me and 



A Call to Judgment 87 

that a welcome home awaits me. I am 
getting paid, for to-night I am starting 
back to my New England home." 

It is life which we may choose, and 
life of the very best sort. It is better 
than anything that this world can give. 
Men have tried other ways, and they 
have ended in despair and shame and 
death, but this way is the path of the 
just and shines brighter and brighter 
unto the perfect day. Therefore choose 
life and choose it now. 

In St. Paul's cathedral in London 
it is said that under the dome there 
is a red mark, and I have been told 
that this mark indicates the place where 
a workman lost his life. He fell from 
the scaffolding and was dashed to pieces 
upon the floor. I have been told that 
in the Alps very frequently you will 
see black crosses where men have slipped 
into eternity as the result of an accident. 
But I suggest these stories in order 
that I may say that where you are at 
this present moment may be the black 



88 And Judas Iscariot 

cross of death, because there some one 
rejected Christ. If you feel this, choose 
Jesus Christ; choose him, and choose 
him now. 

"I call heaven and earth to record 
this day against you, that I have set 
before you life and death, blessing and 
cursing: therefore choose life, that both 
thou and thy seed may live." 



A CHANGED LIFE 

Text: "And, behold, there was a woman which 
had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed 
together, and could in no wise lift herself up. And 
when Jesus savj her, he called her to him, and said 
unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity: 
And he laid his hands on her; and immediately she 
was made straight, and glorified God" — Luke 13: 
11-13. 

These verses present to us one of the 
most interesting stories imaginable — of 
interest to us first because it is one of 
our Lord's miracles, and one has only 
to study these manifestations of his 
power to be persuaded of his divinity; 
interesting, again, because it is the ac- 
count of a remarkable recovery from a 
great infirmity, for instead of bondage 
which had held this woman for eighteen 
years we behold her standing upright glori- 
fying God. But it is all the more interest- 
ing to us because it presents a picture of 
what may be called the overflow ministry 

89 



90 And Judas Iscariot 

of Jesus, of which there are many in- 
stances — as, for example, the account of 
the staunching of the issue of blood when 
the woman touched the hem of his gar- 
ment. He was going upon another er- 
rand, but was so filled with virtue that 
when one of the multitude at his side 
touched him, by faith healing was the 
result. And, again, we have an illustra- 
tion in the raising of Jairus' daughter, and 
once again in the rescue of the widow's 
son from death. He was on his journey 
across the country and beheld the funeral 
procession coming. Mr. Moody used to 
say that Jesus broke- up every funeral he 
attended, and he stops long enough in this 
journey to restore this boy to his broken- 
hearted mother. Again, in the case of 
the woman of Samaria, when he is going 
about his Father's business, he stops by 
the wellside to rest, and even in his rest- 
ing moments forgives a woman's sins, so 
that under her influence an entire city is 
moved. Would that we could learn that 
it is the overflow of our lives that gives 



A Changed Life 91 

power to our Christian experience! 
This text is one of the best illustra- 
tions of this truth in the life of our 
Savior. 

i 

Many lessons might be drawn from this 
scripture, the first of which would be his 
power to uplift womanhood ; but this is so 
Well understood that it is unnecessary to 
take a moment of time to discuss it, except 
to say in passing that all that woman is to- 
day she owes to Jesus of Nazareth. She 
was as truly bound as this afflicted woman, 
and just as truly was she set free. But I 
prefer rather to let the woman of Samaria 
illustrate many Christians to-day who 
are bound in one way or another and so 
are shorn of power. For this suggestion I 
am indebted to my dear friend, the Rev. 
F. B. Meyer, a brief outline of whose 
sermon I recently had the privilege of 
reading. 

She was a daughter of Abraham, as we 
read in verse 16, "And ought not this 
woman, being a daughter of Abraham, 



92 And Judas Iscariot 

whom Satan had bound, lo, these eighteen 
years, be loosed from this bond on the 
Sabbath day?" And therefore she was 
like many children of God whom we 
know. What it is that binds them we 
cannot always tell. With this person it 
is fashion, and with that it is earnings; 
with another it is pride, and still another 
selfishness; with this one it is the encour 7 
agement of some passion, and with still 
another it is the practice of some secret 
sin. It is not necessary to describe the 
bondage; it is true, alas, that many of us 
are sadly crippled in our influence because 
of these things, for this woman was just 
as truly bound as if she had been in chains. 
When Jesus entered the synagogue his 
eye saw her instantly, and he detected her 
difficulty. He is in the midst of us to-day, 
and while we are unconscious of the bond- 
age of the one who is beside us, he under- 
stands it perfectly. That minister who 
has lost his old power and is therefore an 
enigma to his people, that church officer 
who is out of communion and whose tes- 



A Changed Life 93 

timony has lost its old ring of genuineness, 
that young woman bordering on despair 
because in her heart she knows she is 
not right with God, and that young man 
whose character is being undermined by 
the cultivation of a secret sin — all these are 
known to him. He looks them through 
and through, and not a point of weakness 
is hidden from his gaze. 

Note again, that she was powerless to 
help herself. I doubt not that she had 
tried again and again to lift herself up. 
She had been unable to turn her eyes up- 
ward to see the stars, her vision had been 
centered upon things below, and in this 
way she is like many a Christian attempt- 
ing to be satisfied with earthly things and 
making life a miserable failure. The 
Scriptures declare that she "could in 
no wise lift up herself," and I have been 
told that this expression is the same w^ord 
which is used in another place in the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, where Jesus is 
said to be able to save to the uttermost; 
so that really the Scriptures mean that she 



94 And Judas Iscariot 

tried to the uttermost to lift herself up and 
failed, and that she had gone to the utter- 
most in the matter of bondage, and then 
because Jesus is able to save to the utter- 
most he set her free; or, in other words, 
her need was met by his power. Oh, 
what an encouragement to know that the 
thing which has been your defeat and 
mine he may easily conquer! It is a 
striking picture to me; he laid his hands 
on her and said, "Woman, thou art 
loosed," and she stood straight and glori- 
fied God. 

Some years ago there came into the 
McAuley mission, in^New York City, a 
man who was, because of his sin, unable 
to speak and was bound down until, in- 
stead of standing a man six feet high, as 
he should have done, he was like a dwarf. 
He came to Christ in the old mission, and 
when kneeling at the altar he accepted 
him, as if by a miracle Jesus set him free 
also, and when he stood up the bonds were 
snapped that held him, and he had his old 
stature back again. His speech, however, 



A Changed Life 95 

was not entirely recovered. It is the cus- 
tom in the mission for one to observe his 
anniversary each year and to give a testi- 
mony. Whenever the anniversary of this 
man occurred he always had another read 
his lesson, then he would stand before the 
people bowed down as he had been in sin 
and suddenly rise before them in the full 
dignity of his Christian manhood, glorify- 
ing God in his standing. This was like 
the woman of the text, and oh, that it 
might be like some one reading this who, 
bound by an appetite or a passion, shall be 
set free by the power of God ! 

The difference between this woman 
in the one case bound and wretched and in 
the other straight and glorifying God is 
the difference between Christians bound 
by appetite, pride or sin and when set 
free by the power of Christ. It is the 
difference between the average Christian 
experience and what God means we 
should be. 

Two things this woman had — first, 
his word, when he said, "Woman, thou 



96 And Judas Iscariot 

art loosed"; and, second, the touch 
of his hand as he laid his hands 
upon her. Both of these privileges we 
may have. 

ii 

Have you really taken all that God 
meant you should have? Your life is the 
test of this question. If you are constantly 
failing at the same point, if you are dom- 
inated by a spirit of unrest, if you are lack- 
ing in spiritual power, something is wrong 
and you need the touch of the living 
Christ. The early disciples were an illus- 
tration of those of us who have not yet 
fully appreciated and appropriated our 
Savior. He had given them life, for in the 
seventeenth of John he declares that this is 
true. They had peace as a possession, for 
in the fourteenth chapter and twenty- 
seventh verse he says, " Peace I leave with 
you, my peace I give unto you : not as the 
world giveth, give I unto you. Let not 
your heart be troubled, neither let it be 
afraid. 55 They also had joy as a gift, for 
he said, "These things have I spoken unto 



A Changed Life 97 

you, that my joy might remain in you, and 
that your joy might be full"; and yet they 
quarreled among themselves, one of them 
denied him with an oath, and all of them 
forsook him. They were a weak, vacillat- 
ing company of men, but suddenly there 
came a remarkable change. It w T as as if 
there had been two Peters. The first was a 
coward, the second a perfect giant in his 
fearlessness. The first was afraid of a little 
girl, the second faced a mob and fearlessly 
proclaimed the truth of God that con- 
demned him; and the secret of this change 
is found in the fact that the Holy Ghost 
had fallen upon him and upon them. This 
is what we need. Jesus was God's gift to 
the world, and the Holy Ghost is his gift to 
the church. Have we failed to take both? 
A man over in England, telling his pastor 
about his experience, said that he had 
taken Jesus for his eternal life and the Holy 
Ghost for his internal life. This is cer- 
tainly what we need to do more than any- 
thing else. We need the Holy Spirit of 
God in our lives. He would illuminate our 



98 And Judas Iscariot 

minds as we read the Bible, strengthen our 
faith as we appropriate Christ, transform 
our lives as he came to do, and enable us 
to live and preach in demonstration of the 
Spirit and with power. Have you ever 
stopped to think what is really associated 
with the full acceptance of the third Per- 
son of the Trinity? 

First, Power. " Ye shall receive power 
after that the Holy Ghost has come upon 
you." 

Second, Ability to pray. "We know not 
what we should pray for as we ought, but 
the Spirit himself maketh intercession 
for us. 55 

Third, Victory over sin. "For the law 
of the Spirit of Christ in Christ Jesus sets 
me free from the law of sin and death. " 

Fourth, Cleanness of life. "Ye have 
purified your souls in obeying the truth 
through the Spirit. 55 

Fifth, The representation of Jesus 
Christ. Not imitation, but reproduction, 
is what we need. 

Two artists are painting before a pic- 



A Changed Life 99 

ture. The work of one is sadly deficient* 
the other an inspiration, for one is copying 
while the other is reproducing his own 
work. Oh, that we might be so filled with 
the spirit of God that men should take 
knowledge of us that we not only had been 
with Jesus but were like him ! Two things 
we need, both of which we may have : His 
word and his touch. First, his Word. 
We surely have this. Has he not said, "Ye 
shall receive power " ? But with this there 
is coupled a condition, "Come out from 
among them and be ye separate. " Fulfill- 
ing this condition, we have only to step out 
upon his promise on the ground of the fact 
that he has said, "That ye might receive 
the promise of the Spirit through faith. 55 
Second, we have the touch of his hand. 
This emphasizes his reality. One of the 
greatest dangers of the day, it seems to 
me, is the fact that we are so inclined 
to make him unreal. It also indicates 
his nearness. He can fill us so that his 
life may come throbbing into our very 
being, and this is the secret of victory 

Lore 



100 And Judas Iscariot 

in the time of temptation. We must be 
empty to be filled, but no man can empty 
himself. Two ways may be presented for 
the emptying of a jar of air. First, use the 
air pump; but in this way it cannot be per- 
fectly done. Second, fill the jar with 
water. This is the better way. When 
Christ fills our lives he empties us of self 
and sin. To some unknown friend I am 
indebted for four steps which we must 
take if we would be loosed from our bond- 
age and stand straight in the presence of 
God and men. 

First: What God claims I will yield; 
that is myself. 

Second: What I yield God accepts. 
Since I have taken my hands off from my- 
self I am not my own. 

"I have not much to bring Thee, Lord, 

For that great love which made Thee mine, 
I have not much to bring Thee, Lord, 
But all I am is Thine." 

Third: What God accepts he fills. 
Fourth : What God fills he uses. 



A Changed Life 101 

in 

Mind you, it is not once and for all that 
we are filled with the Spirit of God; there 
will be a necessity for daily renewal, not 
only because we may sin but also because 
we may use the strength which he has 
imparted to us. Three suggestions may 
be made, therefore, for our constant in- 
filling. 

First: Make his word your daily por- 
tion. Count that day lost which passes 
without a portion of his word absorbed 
into your life. 

Second : Make his will supreme. There 
can be no joy in the household when the 
children rebel against the parents. There 
can be no power in Christian experience 
when our wills are contrary to his. 

Third : Make him the king of your life. 
His coronation will one day come, when 
he shall be proclaimed King of kings and 
Lord of lords; but while we wait for that 
we may crown him in our own lives. 

When Queen Victoria had just ascended 



102 And Judas Iscariot 

her throne she went, as is the custom of 
Royalty, to hear "The Messiah" rendered. 
She had been instructed as to her conduct 
by those who knew, and was told that 
she must not rise when the others stood at 
the singing of the Hallelujah chorus. 
When that magnificent chorus was being 
sung and the singers were shouting "Hal- 
lelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah! for the 
Lord God omnipotent reigneth," she sat 
with great difficulty. It seemed as if she 
w^ould rise in spite of the custom of kings 
and queens, but finally when they came 
to that part of the chorus where with a 
shout they proclaim him King of kings 
suddenly the young queen rose and stood 
with bowed head, as if she would take her 
own crown from off her head and cast it 
at his feet. Let us make him our King 
and every day be loyal to him. This is 
the secret of peace. 



THE LOST OPPORTUNITY 

Text: "And as thy servant was busy here and 
there , he was gone. And the king of Israel said unto 
him, So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided 
itr—l Kings 20:40. " 

There is a very striking incident con- 
nected with this text. The great battle 
is raging, a certain important prisoner has 
been taken, and if you read between the 
lines you seem to know that upon him 
depend many of the issues of war. His 
skill in leading the enemy had been mar- 
velous, his courage in the thick of the 
fight striking; and now he is a prisoner. 
The king puts him in the keeping of a 
Jewish soldier, saying, "Guard this man; 
if he escapes thy life shall be demanded 
for his." It is possible that they gave an 
extra pull to the thongs that bound the 
enemy and the guard w^as left alone with 
him. It is an important duty he has to 
perform. His life hangs in the balance. 

103 



104 And Judas Iscariot 

He must have been impressed with it. 
But, as we read on between the lines, 
strange as it may seem, he becomes neg- 
ligent, his bow is laid down and his spear 
is left standing against the tent. He be- 
comes hungry and takes a few small cakes 
to eat, he is weary and lies down to doze 
and sleep. Suddenly there is a snap and 
a bound, and the guard arouses himself 
just in time to see his prisoner dash into 
the thicket, and he is gone. Now the king 
requires the prisoner at the guard's hand. 
Terror-stricken, he falls upon his face to 
cry aloud in the words of the text, "And 
as thy servant was busy here and there, 
he was gone. And the king of Israel said 
unto him, So shall thy judgment be; thy- 
self hast decided it." 

It is my purpose to show in this illus- 
tration that God is always placing oppor- 
tunities within our grasp. In a sense they 
are bound, for they may be made to do 
our will if we rightly use them. And it 
is also my purpose to show that as saint 
and sinner alike we have permitted oppor- 



The Lost Opportunity 105 

tunities to slip away while we doze in weari- 
ness or give attention to matters of less 
importance. God save us all from the 
expression, "It might have been/' when 
it is too late, for even God himself cannot 
reverse the wheels of time and bring back 
the lost opportunity. We see this all about 
us. I hold in my hands a piece of cold 
iron. I cannot bend it; if I put it in the 
fire it becomes pliant; if I take it out it is 
cold again. There is a point in time, how- 
ever, where it is bent as easily as a piece 
of paper. 

Years ago our nation sent astronomers 
to Africa to witness the transit of Venus. 
Preparation for this great sight had been 
going on for months. There was a criti- 
cal moment when the sun, Venus and the 
earth were all in line. Every astronomer 
knew that at that moment his eye must be 
at the smaller end of the glass if he would 
see the planet go flying past the larger 
end. If he should miss that moment no 
power on earth could bring the planet back 
again. The world is full of these moments. 



106 And Judas Iscariot 

Galileo studied the eye of an ox and 
beheld the principle of the lens. Watts 
looked at the teakettle lid as it was lifted 
by steam, Columbus saw the wind's direc- 
tion and knew there was land not far 
away. The difference between these men, 
to whom the world is indebted, and many 
others is this, that they have looked at the 
oxen's eyes and have been unmoved, have 
allowed the teakettle to boil without mak- 
ing an impression upon them, and the 
wind to blow without leading them 
to any shore. The opportunity for great- 
ness is gone. There is not a person in the 
world but to whom at some time a great 
opportunity has been given, and for the 
use or abuse of it we shall be called to a 

strict account. 

i 

These opportunities for doing good 
come to the one who is a Christian. 

First: I would not preach to others 
what I did not first preach to myself, but 
there are many of us as ministers like 
Chalmers, who was one day visiting an 



The Lost Opportunity 107 

old man seventy-two years of age, appar- 
ently in perfect health. They talked to- 
gether about everything but Christ. The 
minister was inclined to speak about his 
soul, but did not. Before morning the old 
man was dead. Dr. Chalmers returned 
to the house, called all the old man's 
household about him, and offered the 
most touching apology and prayer. He 
spent the entire day in the w r oods, saying, 
" If I had been faithful this might not have 
been. " I have no question but God would 
say, "So shall thy judgment be." 

Second : You who are Christian workers 
have failed. A Christian merchant was 
told that there was a certain man with 
whom he had traded for years to whom he 
had never spoken about his soul. "I 
will speak the next time I see him," he 
said, but he never came, for while he was 
busy here and there the man was gone 
from him. Before he came again death 
met him. So shall his judgment be. 

Third : You who are parents have failed. 
Years ago a young Scotchman from Fife, 



108 And Judas Iscariot 

in Scotland, was leaving home. He was 
not an active Christian. His mother went 
with him to the turn of the road and said, 
"Now, Robert, there is one thing you must 
promise before you go." "No," said the 
lad, "I will not promise until I know." 
"But it will not be difficult," said his 
mother. "Then I will promise," he said. 
And she said, "Every night before you lie 
down to sleep read a chapter and pray." 
He did not want to promise it, but he did. 
Who was that Robert? It was Robert 
Moffat, the great missionary, who, when 
he came into the Kingdom, brought al- 
most a continent in .after him. Many a 
mother has lost her opportunity to speak 
to her boy, and she has lost it because she 
has not lived as a mother should who 
would help her boy. So shall her judg- 
ment be. 

ii 

These opportunities come to the un- 
saved. The Bible is full of men who have 
had an opportunity to be saved but are 
lost. 



The Lost Opportunity 109 

First: There is Herod. His face 
blanches as he listens to the truth, he is 
ready to forsake some of his sin; but more 
is required than that to be a Christian, 
and Herod fails. 

Second: Look at Felix. As he gazes 
into the face of Paul the Apostle and hears 
his message, he trembles ; a moment more 
he will be a Christian; but more is required 
than that to be saved, and Felix is lost. 

Third: Behold Judas. See him at the 
feet of Jesus. Later he is full of re- 
morse because he has sold him for thirty 
pieces of silver; but mere remorse never 
saved a soul, and Judas is lost. 

You have doubtless heard of that young 
girl of whom the poet tells us. She had a 
string of pearls in her hand and her hand 
is in the water, the string is broken, and 
one by one the pearls slip away. So it 
has been with you who have been Chris- 
tians. My hope is that there may be 
one pearl left yet. To-day is the ac- 
cepted time; do not let the opportunity 
slip. 



110 And Judas Iscariot 

in 

The Bible is full of men just the oppo- 
site who had opportunities to be saved and 
embraced them. 

First: Zaccheus. There was just one 
day, one hour, one moment; when Jesus 
would pass by, and Zaccheus ran to the 
sycamore tree; but he made haste and 
came down, and that saved him. 

Second: Bartimeus. There was just a 
moment when Jesus was near to hear the 
sound of his voice. If Bartimeus failed 
that moment he would be blind forever. 
I can see him quickly turning his sight- 
less eyes in the direction of the Savior. 
He cried unto him and it was his earnest- 
ness that saved him. We must make 
haste while yet it is to-day. 

Third: Coming down from the moun- 
tain, where he had preached his great 
sermon, Jesus beheld the leper. He was 
dead, according to the law, yet he had a 
napkin bound about his mouth. If one 
had called to him, "Your child is dead," 
he could not have gone to see the little one. 



The Lost Opportunity 111 

But he breaks through all of this and cries, 
"If thou wilt thou canst make me clean/ 5 
It was his desperation that saved him. 

Fourth: Look at the dying thief, so 
near that he could have touched Christ if 
he had been free. Here yawned before 
him the very brink of hell, here was judg- 
ment for his sins, for he acknowledged that 
he w T as justly punished. I can see him 
struggle to decide whether he shall speak 
or not, and at last he cries, "Lord, remem- 
ber me. " And Jesus said, "To-day shalt 
thou be with me in paradise. " It was his 
last chance, and he took it. And this may 
be yours. God forbid that you should let 
the opportunity slip away. 

But whether jmy message is to ministers, 
to Christian workers, to parents or to the 
unsaved, I call your attention to this fact : 
It was when the soldier was busy that 
the prisoner escaped. Many of you have 
been busy about pleasure, and some day 
it will mock you. You have been caught 
by the fascination of business, and it does 
not prevent your soul having been sur- 



112 And Judas Iscariot 

rounded by sin from which after a while 
you cannot escape, and if the opportunity 
slips away so shall our judgment be, for 
we must decide it. In a few years at the 
latest, possibly in a few months, perhaps 
in a few weeks — who knows but within a 
few days? — eternity shall be upon us. If it 
is an opportunity that is gone or a soul that 
is lost it will be a sad eternity indeed for 
us. To this end may God keep us 
watchful. 



A GREAT VICTORY 

Text: "And they stood every man in his place 
round about the camp, and all the host ran, and cried, 
and fled." — Judges 7: 21. 

Few things in this world are so inspiring 
to the traveler and at the same time so de- 
pressing as a city or temple in ruins. I re- 
member a delightful experience in passing 
through the ruins of Karnak and Luxor, 
on the Nile in Egypt, and later passing 
through Phylae at Assuan on the Nile; 
and these two thoughts, each the opposite 
of the other, kept constantly coming to 
my mind. The loneliness is oppressive, 
and one would be delighted to hear the 
song of a bird, the bark of a dog, or the 
cry of a child. These ruins were once 
happy homes, or were temples filled with 
worshipers. Here little children played 
and gray-haired patriarchs worshiped 
their gods. 

Akin to this picture is the one of the peo- 

113 



114 And Judas Iscariot 

pie of Israel at the time of this story, and 
the alternating feelings of pleasure and 
sadness keep constantly coming and going. 
The condition of the land beggared de- 
scription. Homes were there, but no chil- 
dren were about the doors; there were 
fields, but no crops to be harvested; pas- 
tures, but no cattle fed upon them; the hills 
were to be seen, but no flocks bleated on 
their sides ; people were there, but they were 
found in the caves and hiding away on the 
mountain sides. When they had entered 
Canaan, these chosen people of God, he 
had said unto them, "And it shall come to 
pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto 
the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe 
and to do all his commandments which I 
command thee this day, that the Lord thy 
God will set thee on high above all nations 
of the earth; and all these blessings shall 
come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou 
shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord 
thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the 
city, and blessed shalt thou be in the 
field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy 
body, and the fruit of thy ground, and 






A Great Victory 115 

the fruit of thy cattle, the increase 
of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. 
Blessed shall be thv basket and thv 
store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou 
comest in, and blessed shalt thou be 
when thou goest out. The Lord shall 
cause thine enemies that rise up against 
thee to be smitten before thy face; they 
shall come out against thee one way, and 
flee before thee seven ways. The Lord 
shall command the blessing upon thee in 
thy storehouses, and in all that thou set- 
test thine hand unto; and he shall bless 
thee in the land which the Lord thy God 
giveth thee. The Lord shall establish thee 
an holy people unto himself, as he hath 
sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the 
commandments of the Lord thy God, and 
walk in his ways. And all the people of 
the earth shall see that thou art called by 
the name of the Lord; and they shall be 
afraid of thee. " 

We have here the Old Testament Beati- 
tudes, and there is nothing like them. 

The story with which the text is associ- 



116 And Judas Iscariot 

ated really begins in the first verse of the 
sixth chapter of Judges, "And the children 
of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord; 
and the Lord delivered them into the hand 
of Midian seven years." But there must 
also be read in connection with this the 
last verse of the fifth chapter of Judges, 
"So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord; 
but let them that love him be as the sun 
when he goeth forth in his might. And 
the land had rest forty years." 

It seems incredible that there could be 
such a difference in the experiences of 
God's people, and yet, as you study them 
in all their wanderings, you will find, if 
you turn over but one leaf of the Bible, 
the people who sing to-day are active in 
evil to-morrow, and the history of Israel 
is the history of one's self. Life is like a 
short ladder, as some one has said, and 
we spend most of our time going up to 
pray and down to sin. There is a striking 
picture in the second verse of the sixth 
chapter. The chosen people of God were 
dwelling in caves instead of their rightful 



A Great Victory 117 

positions in their homes, and the same is 
true to-day; men who ought to be at the 
front are left behind because they are liv- 
ing selfish lives or lives of sin. Do not for 
a moment think that I am saying that be- 
cause a man is living out of sight that he 
is doing nothing, for we have only to re- 
member Gideon to know that this is not 
true. He was a hidden man doing an 
honest work, and the Angel of the Lord 
called him, saying/ 'The Lord is with thee, 
thou mighty man of valor." To this 
Gideon makes a significant reply in the 
thirteenth verse of the sixth chapter of 
Judges, "And Gideon said unto him, 
Oh, my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why 
then is all this befallen us? and where be 
all his miracles which our fathers told us 
of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up 
from Egypt? but now the Lord hath for- 
saken us, and delivered us into the hands 
of the Midianites." For the angel had 
said, "The Lord is with thee, Gideon," 
and Gideon had said, "If the Lord is with 
us, then how can these things be?" And 



118 And Judas Iscariot 

the angel did not say it. How often it is 
true that we miss the truth of God be- 
cause we miss the grammar of the Bible. 
When Gideon had thus replied, we read in 
the fourteenth verse of the sixth chapter, 
"And the Lord looked upon him, and said, 
Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save 
Israel from the hand of the Midianites; 
have not I sent thee? 55 And the thing to 
pay special attention to there is that the 
angel looked at Gideon. Sometimes in 
translating a foreign language you come 
upon a word which you cannot express in 
your own language; so it is with us here, 
for the Lord looked Gideon into a new 
man and said unto him, "Go and thou 
shalt save the people," which leads me to 
say that one man right with God is might- 
ier than a host against God. The seventh 
chapter of Judges opens with the signifi- 
cant word "then." You must have all 
that goes before in your mind to appreci- 
ate this word. God has a plan for every 
life, and all your sickness, your disap- 
pointment, your discipline, is for some- 



A Great Victory 119 

thing. There must be a "then" for you. 
It is the call of God and the answer to it 
that makes real life. Compare Gideon 
the farmer with Gideon the soldier, and 
you will see the difference in a human life. 
Let one, however low or ignorant, but hear 
the voice of God and respond to it, and 
when such an one answers God's call 
for his country, for the church, or for 
Christ, the heroic in him is being stirred. 

It is said that years ago there used to 
be a man in Mr. Spurgeon's Tabernacle 
who never had spoken in his social meet- 
ings, for the reason that he had a stammer- 
ing tongue. One day he heard the great 
preacher say that the Lord could use even 
the tongue of the stammerer. It sent 
him to his home, and to his knees, and 
when he rose to his feet after having 
yielded himself wholly to God, as if by 
miracle God gave him the gift of speech, 
and I have been told that no one in the 
Tabernacle spoke more to the edification 
of the people or the praise of God than he. 

Some years ago when John G. Woolley 



120 And Judas Iscariot 

was delivering his closing address on the 
commencement day at college a young boy 
heard him under peculiar circumstances. 
He had walked in from the country. It 
was a hot day, and to quench his thirst he 
had tasted the water of one of the springs. 
It made him very ill, and just to "escape 
the heat of the sun he crept under the 
platform, which had been erected upon 
the college campus for the commencement 
exercises. While there he fell asleep and 
was awakened by the sound of a musi- 
cal voice. Something that the graduating 
student said stirred his soul, and he there 
made a vow that he w T ould be a preacher. 
It was God's call to him and his answer. 
He has since become one of the world's 
most famous preachers, and his influence 
has been as wide as the world itself. When 
the Midianites stood against the children 
of Israel God called Gideon to lead an 
army against them, and this text is part 
of this story. 

The scene was remarkable. Thirty-two 
thousand people following Gideon's lead- 



A Great Victory 121 

ership with the first flush of the battle upon 
them. They were ready to march, and 
God said when he looked at them, "The 
people are too many." They would seem 
to us to have been too few, for literally a 
multitude of Midianites stood against him. 
But we go wrong so often by applying 
human arithmetic to divine decrees. It is 
said that when Napoleon marched with 
his soldiers he was counted as being equal 
to 40,000 of his men, and so, after all, it 
is not a question of numbers with God, 
but of the few men whom he can use. 
The test by means of which Gideon's 
army was decreased was remarkable. In 
Judges, the seventh chapter and the sec- 
ond to seventh verses, we read, "And the 
Lord said unto Gideon, The people that 
are with thee are too many for me to give 
the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel 
vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine 
own hand hath saved me. Now there- 
fore go to, proclaim in the ears of the peo- 
ple, saying, Whosoever is fearful and 
afraid, let him return and depart early 



122 And Judas Iscariot 

from Mount Gilead. And there returned 
of the people twenty and two thousand; 
and there remained ten thousand. And 
the Lord said unto Gideon, The people 
are yet too many; bring them down unto 
the water, and I will try them for thee 
there; and it shall be, that of whom I say 
unto thee, This shall go with thee, the 
same shall go with thee; and of whomso- 
ever I say unto thee, This shall not go with 
thee, the same shall not go. So he brought 
dow x n the people unto the water; and the 
Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that 
lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a 
dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by him- 
self; likewise every one that boweth down 
upon his knees to drink. And the number 
of them that lapped, putting their hand 
to their mouth, were three hundred men; 
but all the rest of the people bowed dowoi 
upon their knees to drink water. And 
the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three 
hundred men that lapped will I save you, 
and deliver the Midianites into thine 
hand; and let all the other people go every 



A Great Victory 123 

man unto his place. 35 This test is going 
on now among men; by the way we walk 
and talk, by the way we listen and work, 
men form their judgment of us, and so 
does God. We may measure our spiritual 
state by the way we spend our leisure 
moments, by the way we spend our Satur- 
day afternoons, by our rest days, and by 
the books we read. There is flowing past 
us the stream of literature and the stream 
of pleasure, and the question is whether 
we are going to fall down before these 
streams to drink or whether we are just 
going to dip up as we hurry along to ful- 
fill our mission; or, in other words, 
whether we are to be so taken up with 
God's plan that we have no time to idle 
away and no disposition to turn aside. 

"It does not so much matter how many 
members one may have in his church, for 
under the banner of a popular Christianity 
soldiers march. What if there should be 
a struggle ahead when to be a Christian 
would mean to suffer martyrdom, or dying 
at the stake, or contending with the beasts 



124 And Judas Iscariot 

of Ephesus like Paul, how then do you 
think it would be? 55 And yet all the time 
to-day the struggle is going on; both from 
within and from without the foe is assail- 
ing us, the Bible is being attacked, Christ 
is being denied, the resurrection is counted 
a myth, and the future is being questioned, 
and in every part of the church it would 
seem as if men thought that the life of the 
Christian was all a holiday, for people are 
idling, gossiping, buying and selling, mar- 
rying and giving in marriage, instead of 
being in the thick of the fight in the name 
of the Lord of hosts. Give us three hun- 
dred in the church right with God rather 
than the thirty-two thousand compromis- 
ing with sin and the world, and we shall 
win the victory. 



I am impressed in this story with the 
thought of how much may be accom- 
plished without wealth, influence or ma- 
terial strength. We somehow seem to 
think that we cannot work as ministers 



A Great Victory 125 

without a fine equipment. We have an idea 
that we must have a committee back of 
us to be assured of success, that if we are 
without influence we have a small mission 
in the world, forgetting that Michelan- 
gelo wTOught the frescoes in the Sistine 
Chapel w4th the ochres which he digged 
with his own hands in the garden of the 
Vatican; forgetting also that the greatest 
work in the world has been accomplished 
by men like Gideon, who delayed not for 
elaborate preparation, but just took fire- 
brands and torches — indeed, anything 
they could lay their hands upon — and 
cried out, "The sword of the Lord and of 
Gideon," and won the victory. The text 
is most striking, and presents an outline 
which any one ought to be able to see. 

ii 

They stood. It is not so easy to stand as 
to march or to fight. I have been told that 
the most difficult service of the soldier is 
picket duty; and yet never until we learn 
to stand shall we be able to fight. In the 



126 And Judas Iscariot 

fourteenth chapter of Exodus, the thir- 
teenth and fourteenth verses, we read, 
"And Moses said unto the people, Fear 
ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of 
the Lord, which he will shew to you to-day, 
for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to- 
day, ye shall see them again no more for- 
ever. The Lord shall fight for you and 
ye shall hold your peace. " And again, in 
2 Chronicles, the twentieth chapter and 
the seventeenth verse, it is recorded, 
"Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: 
set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the 
salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah 
and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; 
to-morrow go out against them, for the 
Lord will be with you." 

Three thoughts are impressed upon my 
mind: 

First: Before any service, let us stand, 
giving God a chance with us. Let him 
use you and not you use him so much. 
In the beginning of his Christian service 
Hudson Taylor, the China Inland mis- 
sionary, was desirous of being used and 



A Great Victory 127 

cried out for God to send him out into 
service. At last God seemed to say to 
him, "My child, I have made up my mind 
to save inland China. If you will come 
and walk with me I will do it through 
you, " and the China Inland Mission was 
born. 

Second : Wait for orders. In Ephesians 
the sixth chapter and the tenth to the thir- 
teenth verses, we have the following de- 
scription of a soldier: " Finally, my breth- 
ren, be strong in the Lord, and in the 
power of his might. Put on the whole 
armor of God, that ye may be able to stand 
against the wiles of the devil. For we 
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but 
against principalities, against powers, 
against the rulers of the darkness of this 
world, against spiritual wickedness in high 
places. Wherefore take unto you the 
whole armor of God, that ye may be able 
to withstand in the evil day, and having 
done all, to stand. " The striking part of 
that description is the sentence, "having 
done all, to stand. " In other words, with 



128 And Judas Iscariot 

all our ingenuity and our planning, with 
all our preparation and equipment, we 
lack one thing: that one thing is the touch 
of the Almighty God. 

Third: Be willing to do the common 
thing. It was rather interesting to march 
with thirty-two thousand, and a striking 
thing to break pitchers and cry aloud, 
"The sword of the Lord and of Gideon," 
but just to stand was a different matter, 
and not at all easy. If we were only will- 
ing to do the common things for Christ 
we should accomplish more in our lives. 

The great Bethany Sunday school 
building standing in Philadelphia is a 
model in its perfect equipment. The 
mighty Sunday school held there is one 
of the wonders of the world. The build- 
ing was begun not only in the mind and 
heart of the distinguished superintendent, 
the Hon. John Wanamaker, but when 
he appealed for funds as they were then 
needed one of the poorest children in the 
city made practically the first and best 
contribution. She gathered bones from 



A Great Victory 129 

the alleyways, sold them and brought 
her few pennies to help make this wonder- 
ful work a success. 



in 

Every man in his place. 

First : Let us remember that God has a 
plan for every life. Ephesians 4:8-13, 
"Wherefore he saith, When he ascended 
up on high, he led captivity captive, and 
gave gifts unto men. (Now that he as- 
cended, what is it but that he also de- 
scended first into the lower parts of the 
earth? He that descended is the same 
also that ascended up far above all 
heavens, that he might fill all things.) And 
he gave some, apostles ; and some, proph- 
ets; and some, evangelists; and some, 
pastors and teachers; for the perfecting 
of the saints, for the work of the minis- 
try, for the edifying of the body of Christ ; 
till we all come in the unity of the faith, 
and of the knowledge of the Son of 
God, unto a perfect man, unto the meas- 



130 And Judas Iscariot 

ure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ." 

Second: That which in our lives fits 
into God's plans dignifies and strengthens 
in every way. 

A few years ago there was a young man 
selling farming implements. He felt in- 
clined to do Christian work, and later on 
became a Christian Association secretary. 
He became known locally because of his 
ability to sing in a male quartette. He 
was a good singer. Whether he was more 
than the average secretary I do not know. 
He one day felt the call to preach and 
shrank back from itJbecause he felt he was 
without ability, then gave himself to God 
without reserve. He has since become 
one of the greatest preachers to men in 
our country, has possibly led more men to 
Christ than any other man of his day, and 
it was my privilege a short time ago to see 
hundreds of men under the power of his 
preaching come to Christ; and this was 
all because Fred B. Smith gave himself 
unreservedly to Christ. 



A Great Victory 131 

Third : It may be a very ordinary serv- 
ice that God calls you to perform, but if 
you feel it your place your service will 
please him. Rev. Dr. Torrey tells the 
story of the poor mother who by hard day's 
work made it possible for her boy to attend 
college. The day of the graduation came, 
and he said to her, "You must go with me 
to the commencement. 55 Naturally she 
shrank from it, for her clothing was of the 
poorest sort; but he said that there would 
be no commencement without her. He 
was the valedictorian of his class. Proudly 
he led her into the hall, and with beaming 
face she listened while the great throng 
applauded his brilliant speech. When 
he received his gold medal he walked 
down from the platform and pinned it 
upon her breast, saying, "This is yours, 55 
and she was as proud as any queen 
could have been. It w^as a very com- 
mon thing to wash and iron for one's 
daily living, but to be honored thus 
was something any mother might long 
to experience. She simply did her 



132 And Judas Iscariot 

best in a humble way and pleased 
God. 

IV 

Round about the Camp. 

First: Let it be remembered that we 
have a responsibility to others. Some 
years ago on the Irish Sea a terrific storm 
was raging. It was known that just 
off the coast a vessel was going to pieces. 
Suddenly two men, an old sea captain 
and his son, put out through the storm. 
Everybody tried to persuade them not 
to do so, for it seemed to be absolutely 
useless. Over the waves, which appeared 
almost mountain high, they pushed along 
until at last amid the cheers of the waiting 
throng they returned with their little boat 
filled with those who had been all but lost 
upon the ship. When the minister said 
to the old sea captain, "Why do you do 
this? Why take such a risk?" he answered, 
"I have been there myself, and I knew 
the danger. " It is because we have been 
once in sin and now are redeemed by the 
precious blood of Christ that we say 
something to those who are about us. 



A Great Victory 133 

Second: We are responsible for others. 
When Horace Bushnell was a tutor in 
Yale he was a stumbling block to all the 
students because he was not a Christian. 
He realized this himself, and yet he said, 
"How can I accept Christ or the Bible, for 
I do not believe in either one." And then 
the question came to him as from God, 
"What do you believe?" and he said, "I 
only know there is a difference between 
right and wrong." God seemed to say to 
him, "Have you ever taken that stand 
where you would say, 'I am committed to 
the right even if it ends in death 5 ?" and he 
said, "I never have." Falling upon his 
knees he said, "O God, if Jesus Christ be 
true, reveal him to me and I will follow 
him. " And he began to walk in the light, 
which constantly increased, and almost 
every student in Yale came to Christ. 
"No man liveth unto himself alone. " We 
are responsible for the souls of other 
men. We are also responsible for their 
service; if we are half-hearted they will 
surely be. 



134 And Judas Iscariot 

v 

"And the host ran, and cried and fled." 
What hosts are against us to-day? 

First: As individuals there may be 
coming constantly to our minds a ques- 
tion of doubt, of pride, or of secret sin, 
and we wonder if these are evidences that 
we are not Christians. Not at all. They 
are but the fruit of our old nature, and 
are the hosts encamped against us. We 
have only to take our stand with Christ, 
right with him, and we shall win the 
victory. 

Second: In the Church we meet with 
indifference, worldliness, infidelity, and 
we wonder how we may win the victory. 
The answer is simply, "We have but to be 
right with God and to walk with God," 
and three hundred such followers of his 
could put the enemy to rout quickly. 

Third: There is also a battle which 
those of us who are Christians are obliged 
to fight. It has to do with the unsaved 
man. Men are not Christians to-day not 
because they do not believe, not because 



A Great Victory 135 

they are without interest in the future, 
but simply because they have put off and 
put off, and I know of no way to overcome 
this difficulty except by taking one's stand 
with Christ and with those w T ho are like- 
minded with Christ. Having first con- 
cern for the lost, then his intense earnest- 
ness in their salvation, the proscrastination 
of the sinner will flee away. For such a 
victory as this we plead and pray. 



PAUL A PATTERN OF PRAYER 

Text: "If ye shall ask anything in my name I 
will do it" — John 14: 14. 

Jesus testified in no uncertain way 
concerning prayer, for not alone in this 
chapter does he speak but in all his 
messages to his disciples he is seeking 
to lead them into the place where they 
may know how to pray. 

In this fourteenth chapter of John, 
where he is coming into the shadow 
of the cross and is speaking to his dis- 
ciples concerning those things which 
ought to have the greatest weight with 
them, the heart of his message seems to 
be prayer. What an encouragement it 
is to his disciples to pray when they 
remember that he said, "Verily, verily, 
I say unto you, He that believeth on me, 
the works that I do shall he do also; and 
greater works than these shall he do; 
because I go unto my Father. And what- 

137 



138 And Judas Iscariot 

soever ye shall ask in my name, that 
will I do, that the Father may be glorified 
in the Son" (John 14: 12-13). 

Jesus was himself a pattern of prayer. 
He had prayed under all circumstances; 
with him the day was born in prayer, 
went along in meditation and closed in 
most intimate fellowship and communion 
with his Father. Under all circumstances, 
whether it be the raising of Lazarus from 
the dead, or the breathing in of the very 
spirit of God so essential to him in his 
earthly ministry, he prayed; and because 
he was a man of prayer himself, he could 
speak to his disciples with authority 
concerning this subject. 

If we ourselves would know how to 
pray there are certain great principles 
which must be remembered when we 
come to him. 

First: We must believe that he is, 
and that he is the rewarder of them that 
diligently seek him. If one has hazy or 
mystical ideas of Christ then from the very 
nature of the case prayer is impossible. 



Paul a Pattern of Prayer 139 

Second: We must believe his word. 
Mr. Spurgeon's statement that when he 
went to God he always wxnt pleading a 
promise is the secret of his great success 
as a man of prayer. Earthly parents 
are not insensible to the pledges they 
make to their children and surely God 
cannot be. 

Third: We must confess and forsake 
our sins. To confess sin is to arraign 
before us those sins of which we know 
ourselves to be guilty, and when they 
appear before us in solemn and awful 
procession we must heartily renounce 
them. If we do not we cannot pray. 
In another place in God's word we read, 
"Ye ask and receive not, because, ..." 
and while in the verse the rest of the 
sentence is "Ye ask amiss," we might 
finish by saying, "We ask and receive 
not, because our lives are not right in 
God's sight." 

Fourth: We must exercise our faith. 
The little child who prayed for rain and 
then wanted to carry an umbrella with 



140 And Judas Iscariot 

her when the sun was shining is an oft 
repeated illustration, but such faith as this 
is what every child of God must practice. 

The text is exceedingly broad. "If 
ye shall ask anything in my name I will 
do it." It is broad enough to include 
temporal blessing and spiritual power, 
comprehensive enough to lead us to 
believe that God will direct our lives if 
we ask him and will bear our burdens 
even though they be almost insignificant 
in their weight. Thank God for the 
"anything" in the text! 

It may be stated truly that God's 
promises to Israel are especially concern- 
ing temporal blessing and that his 
promises to the church have particular 
reference to spiritual possessions; and 
they both, the history of Israel and the 
history of the church, prove that God 
will give to us temporally as well as 
spiritually. These blessings are included 
in the "anything." 

I have been greatly impressed with 
Paul as a pattern in prayer, and for the 



Paul a Pattern of Prayer 141 

outline of this message as well as for 
many of the suggestions I am indebted 
to an English clergyman, the Rev. E. W. 
Moore, who has written, "The Christ 
Controlled Life," and "Christ in Pos- 
session," and has recently sent out a 
little book entitled, "The Pattern Prayer 
Book." 

I have noticed in studying Paul that 
the burden of his prayer was for spiritual 
blessing rather than for temporal power, 
and throughout the Epistles at least 
seven illustrations are to be found con- 
cerning this subject. 



Prayer for Pentecost. Ephesians 3: 
17-19, "That Christ may dwell in your 
hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and 
grounded in love, may be able to com- 
prehend with all saints, what is the 
breadth, and length, and depth and 
height; and to know the love of Christ, 
which passeth knowledge, that ye might 
be filled with all the fulness of God. " 



142 And Judas Iscariot 

Just what is the burden of this prayer 
of Paul's? 

First: He is not asking for that in- 
dwelling which is ours at conversion; 
for this he would not need to pray, for 
at the moment of regeneration Christ 
is ours and eternal life (which is only 
another way of saying, "the life of the 
eternal") is our never failing posses- 
sion. 

Second : He is not asking for the bodily 
presence of Christ, as some have suggested, 
for in this scripture he states that it is 
by faith that Christ is to dwell with us. 

Third: It is by no means a figurative 
expression, for if this were true there 
would be no comfort in it to God's 
children. Yet, as a matter of fact, this 
prayer of Paul's has been an inspiration 
to God's people everywhere. It is rather 
a special Pentecostal privilege for God's 
children concerning which Paul is pray- 
ing. In Galatians 4:19 we read, "My 
little children, of whom I travail in birth 
again until Christ be formed in you. " 



Paul a Pattern of Prayer 143 

And this is his petition. Let it be noticed 
that the tense of the verb in this connec- 
tion denotes singleness of action, so that 
Paul's prayer may be answered not 
gradually but immediately. If this be 
true then let it be answered now for you 
and for me. 

There are three blessings which would 
flow out of this answer to prayer. 

First: Constancy of experience. "That 
Christ may dwell/' pleads the Apostle. 
It does not mean that he is to come in 
a fitful experience, but the language of 
the hymn is true, 

"Abide with me; fast falls the even tide, 
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide; 
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee, 
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me." 

Second : Strength will be our possession, 
for the Apostle tells us that we are to 
be "rooted and grounded in him." As 
the roots of the tree take hold upon the 
ground and the giant oak withstands 
the storms of the Northern coasts, so 
we may withstand temptation and trial 



144 And Judas Iscariot 

and be more than conquerors if this 
prayer is answered. 

Third: There will be cleansing, for 
we are told that "as a man thinketh in 
his heart so is he." We are told also 
that we must keep our hearts with all 
diligence, for out of them are the issues 
of life. It is easy enough to understand 
how our lives would be pure if Christ 
were only in possession. 

II 

Prayer for Perception. Colossians 1: 
9-10, "For this cause we also, since the 
day we heard it, do not cease to pray for 
you, and to desire that ye might be filled 
with the knowledge of his will in all 
wisdom and spiritual understanding; that 
ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto 
all pleasing, being fruitful in every good 
work, and increasing in the knowledge of 
God.' 5 The need of this prayer was not 
that the Colossians were weak, or that 
they had been conspicuous in the failure 
of their Christian experience, for in the 



Paul a Pattern of Prayer 145 

third and fourth verses of the first chapter 
of Colossians, Paul says concerning them, 
"We give thanks to God and the Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always 
for you, since we heard of your faith 
in Christ Jesus, and of the love which 
ye have to all the saints"; and then in 
the face of this statement he prayed 
earnestly for them. The subject of his 
prayer was not that he desired anything, 
humanly speaking, very great for them; 
he did not ask honor, nor did he desire 
that wealth should be theirs, but merely 
states in the ninth verse that they might 
be filled with the knowledge of his will 
in all wisdom and spiritual understand- 
ing. I have been told that literally, 
this means that they might have full 
knowledge, not simply a passing opinion 
concerning him and his work. 

If we study this particular scripture in 
which Paul is praying for the Colossians 
we will learn how this prayer is to be 
answered. 

First: We must meditate upon God's 



146 And Judas Iscariot 

word. He makes himself especially 
known to his people in his word. There 
are certain great principles which we must 
remember if we would know God's will. 

(1) We must present our bodies to him. 
Romans 12: 1, "I beseech you therefore, 
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye 
present your bodies a living sacrifice, 
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your 
reasonable service.' 5 

(2) We must be delivered from this 
present evil age. Galatians 1:4, "Who 
gave himself for our sins, that he might 
deliver us from this present evil world, 
according to the will of God and our 
Father. " 

(3) We must separate ourselves from 
the world. 1 Thessalonians 4:3, "For 
this is the will of God, even your sanctifi- 
cation, that ye should abstain from forni- 
cation. 5 ' 

(4) We must be thankful. 1 Thessa- 
lonians 5: 18, "In everything give thanks; 
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus 
concerning you." 



Paul a Pattern of Prayer 147 

(5) We must continue patiently to serve 
and follow him. 1 Peter 2: 15, "For so 
is the will of God, that with well doing 
ye may put to silence the ignorance of 
foolish men." 

All of these things are God's will for 
us. If we but practice them the results 
can be only beneficial. As a result of such 
a study of God's word the general knowl- 
edge of God and his will shall be ours. 

Second: The spiritual perception 
spoken of in this particular scripture 
may be ours, as we listen to the 
Spirit of God, for he will speak to us 
God's message and make known to us 
God's will. The purpose of this prayer of 
Paul's for the Colossians was that they 
might walk worthy to all pleasing. What 
a joy it is to know that we may please 
God! For this we should be grateful. 

in 

Prayer for Purity. 1 Thessalonians 5: 
23-24, "And the very God of peace sanc- 
tify you wholly; and I pray God your 



148 And Judas Iscariot 

whole spirit and soul and body be pre- 
served blameless unto the coming of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that 
calleth you, who also will do it. 55 

This prayer is also remarkable if we 
notice the spiritual condition of the 
Thessalonians, for of them we read that 
they had received the word of God with 
joy, and had turned from idols to serve 
the living God, and yet the Apostle prays 
for their sanctification. By this he does 
not mean sinlessness, and a careful study 
of his position would lead us to know 
that he does not teach that sanctification 
may be ever apart^ from growth. We 
must day by day come more and more 
into the likeness of Christ. There are 
three words which it would be well for us 
to remember in our study of this subject. 

First: Position. If we would grow 
unto his likeness we must be where he 
can let shine upon us the light of his 
countenance. Frances Ridley Havergal 
had an aeolian harp sent to her which she 
tried to play with her fingers, and failed. 



Paul a Pattern of Prayer 149 

At last a friend suggested that she 
place it in the window, and the music as 
the wind touched the strings was en- 
trancing. We must be where he can 
use us. 

Second : Purification. Sanctification is 
necessary because God uses only that 
which is clean, never an unclean life. 

Third: Possession. It is really Christ 
filling us, and he will fill us if we give 
him the opportunity. The extent of 
this work is made plain in Paul's prayer: 

(1) The spirit is touched, and the 
spirit is that part of our nature which is 
capable of fellowship with God. 

(2) The soul is filled, and the soul 
is the seat of all our intellectual fac- 
ulties. 

(3) The body is possessed, and since 
the body is just the servant of the higher 
powers of man, we can easily under- 
stand how necessary the work is. It 
is needful, 

(a) For our peace, for the God of 
peace is to sanctify us. 



150 And Judas Iscariot 

(b) For our prayers. For Paul is talk- 
ing about prayer when he praises. 

(c) For our praise, for we are told 
that we must rejoice evermore. 

IV 

Prayer for Power. Ephesians 1 : 15-20, 
" Wherefore I also, after I heard of your 
faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto 
all the saints, cease not to give thanks 
for you, making mention of you in my 
prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto 
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in 
the knowledge of him: the eyes of your 
understanding being enlightened ; that 
ye may know what is the hope of his 
calling, and what the riches of the glory 
of his inheritance in the saints, and 
what is the exceeding greatness of his 
power to usward who believe, according 
to the working of his mighty power; 
which he wrought in Christ, when he 
raised him from the dead, and set him at 
his own right hand in the heavenly places." 



Paul a Pattern of Prayer 151 

The Church at Ephesus was in every 
way remarkable, but to this people Paul 
wrote his most spiritual epistle, which 
in itself is a compliment to them, for as 
in another instance it was not necessary 
for him to write unto them as if they were 
carnal. With this people for the space of 
two or three years he labored, as we find 
recorded in Acts the nineteenth chapter 
and the tenth verse, "And this continued 
by the space of two years ; so that all they 
which dwelt in Asia heard the word of 
the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks/' 
Acts 20:31, "Therefore watch, and re- 
member, that by the space of three years 
I ceased not to warn every one night and 
day with tears. 5 ' 

There were no divisions in this church 
as at Corinth; there were no heresies as 
at Galatia, and no dissensions as at 
Philippi; and yet, for all that, he prays 
most earnestly. The natural question 
for us to ask is, just what is it for which 
he prays, and the question is easily 
answered. 



152 And Judas Iscariot 

First: For advancement in knowledge; 
he asks God that the eyes of their under- 
standing might be enlightened. Under 
this general petition there are three 
special requests. 

(1) That they might know the hope of 
their calling. We have but to study Paul's 
Epistles to realize that this calling in- 
volved : 

A perfect vision, for one day it is 
Christ's promise and teaching that they 
shall see him as he is. The hooe of this 
would keep them faithful. 

It involved, in the next place, a perfect 
likeness, for, seeing him as he is, they 
would become like him, and the hope of 
this would keep them clean. 

It involved, in the third place, a perfect 
union, for when this hope of their calling 
is fulfilled there is no possibility of any- 
thing coming between the believer and 
Christ; so the fellowship must be perfect. 

(2) Paul also requests that they may 
know the riches of the glory of his in- 
heritance in the saints. That is very 



Paul a Pattern of Prayer 153 

wonderful. He does not say the riches of 
the saints in him — that could be easily 
understood; but what an inspiration it 
is to know that he has glory in us, and 
that the mere possession of poor, frail 
creatures like ourselves is to him a 
perfect delight! We sometimes say that 
we could not get along without Christ, 
but how inspiring it is to know that he 
could not and he would not get along 
without us! 

(3) The Apostle also prays that the 
church at Ephesus might know what is 
the exceeding greatness of Christ's power 
towards us. It is not simply a great 
power that is described but an exceedingly 
great power. There is absolutely no 
limit to what he can accomplish in 
and through us if we but yield ourselves 
unreservedly to him. 

Second: Another question may natu- 
rally come to us, Why have we not this 
power of his? The answer is simply 
because the eyes of our understanding 
have not been enlightened. We have 



154 And Judas Iscariot 

been too much self-centered and too 
closely wedded to the world. We need a 
stronger vision. There are stars in the 
heavens to-day that have never yet been 
seen, not because they do not exist but 
because there has been no glass invented 
strong enough to take them in. Each 
new day brings a vision of new heavenly 
bodies. We also need stronger faith, for 
if we have become persuaded of the fact 
that he can do all things the victory is 
won when we take this position. 



Prayer for Perseverance. Philippians 
1:9-11, "And this I pray, that your love 
may abound yet more and more in 
knowledge and in all judgment; that 
ye may approve things that are excellent, 
that ye may be sincere and without offence 
till the day of Christ. Being filled with 
the fruits of righteousness, which are 
by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise 
of God." Paul has a tender affection 
for this Philippian Church. Naturally 



Paul a Pattern of Prayer 155 

he would wish for them only the best 
things, and the burden of this prayer of 
his is, 

First: That they might be able to 
persevere to the end, or rather to the 
day of Christ. Let it not be forgotten 
that he who said, "Nothing can separate 
us from the love of God," at the same 
time prays that those who are the object 
of this love may be faithful in their 
perseverance until time shall be no more. 
It is God's privilege to preserve us, it 
is our privilege to persevere; and if we 
study the words "preserve" and "per- 
severe" we shall find that they are 
composed of almost the same letters 
with only a slightly different arrangement. 
We must be exceedingly careful in our 
walk and we must rely perfectly upon 
Christ. 

Second: Paul prays for the purity of 
these Philippians when he asks that 
they may be sincere and without offence. 
I have been told that the word "sincere" 
sometimes means sunlight; which leads 



156 And Judas Iscariot 

me to say that our conduct as Christians 
should be such as to bear the clearest 
light of investigation. Possibly the use 
of this word grew out of the custom of 
the people who stored away their goods 
in the darkest corners of the bazaar where 
their defects could not be seen plainly. 
When the purchase had been consumma- 
ted they were brought out into the sunlight. 
The word also means "wax." It is said 
that in the days of imperial Rome when 
a sculptor came to a flaw in the marble 
he filled it with wax to hide the defect, 
but when the hot days came and the 
wax was melted the defect was seen 
plainly. Paul is desiring for these Phil- 
ippians that there may be none of this, 
but that their lives should commend 
themselves both to God and to men. 

Third: He desires that they may be 
filled with the fruits of righteousness, not 
simply that they may produce fruit 
of one sort or another. It is not enough 
simply to bear fruit. "Herein is my 
Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." 



Paul a Pattern of Prayer 157 

This is the overflow experience of the 
Christian and must be realized by us all. 

VI 

Prayer for Perfectness. Hebrews 13: 
20-21, "Now the God of peace, that 
brought again from the dead our Lord 
Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 
through the blood of the everlasting 
covenant, make you perfect in every 
good work to do his will, working in you 
that which is wellpleasing in his sight, 
through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory 
for ever and ever. Amen. " The burden 
of this prayer of the Apostle is that his 
people may do the will of God. This 
is required in all times and for various 
reasons. 

First: The glory of God demands it, 
and unless we are doing his will we are 
robbing him of his glory. Revelation 
4* 11, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to re- 
ceive glory and honor and power: for 
thou hast created all things, and for thy 
pleasure they are and were created. " 



158 And Judas Iscariot 

Second: Our own happiness depends 
upon it. Let it not be thought for a 
moment that we are simply to do God's 
will when some sort of trial is upon us, 
but rather let us remember the scriptural 
expression, "I delight to do thy will, O 
God." What if God's will should be 
done for but one year in all things in any 
of our cities; would the result be anything 
else than perfect joy? 

Third: Our safety depends upon it. 
We must lean hard upon God's will. 
In Switzerland at one of the most danger- 
ous passes, where men used to travel 
with their faces white with fear, to-dav 
any ordinary traveler can pass in safety 
because along the edge of the cliff there 
is an iron rail against which you may 
lean and have almost no danger beside 
you. This iron rail corresponds to the 
will of God for Christians. Paul also 
asks in this prayer that God's people 
may be made perfect to do his will. We 
need not be afraid of this word perfect, 
nor of Paul's prayer, for as Dr. Moore 



Paul a Pattern of Prayer 159 

has said, it is not a perfection of doing 
but a perfection to do, not a finality but 
a fitting. The same Greek word is used 
elsewhere, as for example, 

"Fitted." Romans 9:22, "What if 
God, willing to show his wrath, and to 
make his power known, endured with 
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath 
fitted to destruction. " 

"Prepared. " Hebrews 10 : 5, "Where- 
fore when he cometh into the world, he 
saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest 
not, but a body hast thou prepared me. " 

"Framed. " Hebrews 11 : 3, "Through 
faith we understand that the worlds were 
framed by the word of God, so that 
things which are seen were not made of 
things which do appear.' 5 

"Restored." Galatians 6: 1, "Brethren, 
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye 
which are spiritual, restore such an one 
in the spirit of meekness, considering 
thyself, lest thou also be tempted." 

"Mend." Mark 1 : 19, "And when he 
had gone a little farther thence, he saw 



160 And Judas Iscariot 

James the son of Zebedee, and John 
his brother, who also were in the ship 
mending their nets." 

The illustration has been used of a 
man with his leg out of joint. He cannot 
walk except with great pain, but when 
he puts himself without reserve into the 
hands of the doctor and the leg is set 
he can then rise and walk. He is not a 
perfect walker, but he is made perfect 
to walk. And the idea of all the verses 
above quoted is that we may be set 
with right relations to Christ that he may 
have his way with us, that we may stand 
where he willed we- should stand; and 
as a result we shall be well pleasing in 
his sight. 

VII 

Prayer for Peace. 2 Thessalonians 3: 
16, "Now the Lord of peace himself 
give you peace always by all means. 
The Lord be with you all." Peace is 
most difficult to define. It is the opposite 
of unrest, confusion and strife; and this 



Paul a Pattern of Prayer 161 

peace for which the Apostle prays is, 
first, not the peace of indifference. Let 
this never be forgotten. Second: It is 
not the peace of prosperous surround- 
ings. Some people frequently fail at 
this point but it is the very peace of 
God himself. The peace here prayed 
for looks in three directions. 

First: Godward. "Being justified by 
faith we have peace with God." His 
pardoning voice we hear and he is 
reconciled. 

Second: Inward. "Peace I leave with 
you, my peace I give unto you; let not 
your heart be troubled." 

Third: Outward. With such a pos- 
session we may meet trial and bear bur- 
dens and never be moved. How may 
we secure such a possession? 

(1) By having confidence in Christ's 
work, for when he met his disciples and 
showed them his hands and his side, he 
said, "Peace be unto you." 

(2) By submission to Christ's rule. 
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace/ 5 



162 And Judas Iscariot 

or, as the literal translation is, "Thou 
wilt keep him in peace, peace, who 
trusteth in thee because his mind is 
set on thee. 55 This is our possession, 
and for that Paul prays. 



A STARTLING STATEMENT 

Text: "The wicked shall not be unpunished' 1 — 
Prov. 11: 21. 

There are very many passages of 
Scripture which ought to be read in con- 
nection with this text; as for example, 
"Fools make a mock at sin" (Proverbs 
14:9), for only a fool would. Better 
trifle with the pestilence and expose 
one's self to the plague than to discount 
the blighting effects of sin. And, again, 
"The soul that sinneth it shall die" (Ezek- 
iel 18 :4) . From this clear statement of the 
word of God there is no escape. Or, again, 
"Our secret sins in the light of thy coun- 
tenance" (Psalm 90:8). There is really 
nothing hidden from his sight. We may 
conceal our sinful thoughts from men and 
sometimes even our evil practices; but 
not from God. Or again, "Sin, when it 
is finished, bringeth forth death" (James 
1: 15). Here is unexampled progress 

163 



164 And Judas Iscariot 

indicated from which there never has 
been the slightest deviation. But one of 
the sharpest texts in all the Word of God, 
and one which men somehow in these 
days seem to ignore, is Paul's expression, 
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: 
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap" (Galatians 6:7), and if we 
compare this reference in the New Testa- 
ment to the text in the Old Testament 
the harvest indeed seems to be sure, for 
"The wicked shall not be unpunished. " 

There is a note of truth in all of these 
statements for both saint and sinner. 
Jeremiah the thirtieth chapter and the 
eleventh verse, "For I am with thee, 
saith the Lord, to save thee: though I 
make a full end of all nations whither I 
have scattered thee, yet I will not make 
a full end of thee : but I w ill correct thee in 
measure, and will not leave thee alto- 
gether unpunished." The old Prophet 
is speaking to the people of Israel; and 
while he tells them that they are God's 
people, nevertheless they shall not alto- 



A Startling Statement 165 

gether go unpunished, for if they sow 
to the flesh they must of the flesh reap 
corruption. In Deuteronomy the fifth 
chapter and the ninth verse, we read, 
"Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto 
them, nor serve them: for I the Lord 
thy God am a jealous God, visiting the 
iniquity of the fathers upon the children 
unto the third and fourth generation of 
them that hate me." It is a solemn 
fact that the sins of the fathers descend 
upon the children unto the third and 
fourth generation. It is more solemn 
that so blighting is the effect of sin 
that the fourth generation is the last. 
There is no fifth. Even though we be 
pardoned from sin forever, we shall not 
altogether go unpunished. 

Certainly it is true that if one rejects 
Jesus Christ, punishment for him is 
absolutely certain. The other day in 
the city of Chicago the following appeared 
in the Inter-Ocean as an editorial under 
the title of "Preaching for Men." 

'To thosie who look upon men as they 



166 And Jiidas Iscariot 

are it is simply astounding that so many 
preachers should act as if the hope of 
reward alone could be efficient to move 
average mankind to leave sin and follow 
after righteousness. In every other re- 
lation of human life every man is con- 
stantly confronted with the alternative: 
Do right and be rewarded; do wrong and 
be punished. The pressure of fear as 
well as the pressure of hope is continually 
upon him. He knows that he may con- 
ceal his wrongdoing from the eye of man, 
but he is always under the fear of dis- 
covery and punishment. But he goes 
to church, and in nine cases out of ten 
the preacher, while insisting that he can 
hide nothing from the eye of God, yet 
says nothing to arouse in him that fear 
of God which is the beginning of wisdom. 
If he turn from religion to science he 
finds science more positive of the certainty 
of punishment than of the certainty 
of reward. Science cannot, for example, 
assure him of a long life, even though 
he scrupulously obey hygienic laws. But 
it can assure him of a speedy death 



A Startling Statement 167 

if he wantonly violates those laws. 
Precisely this fact that the consequences of 
sin in punishment can be foretold more 
positively than the consequences of right- 
eousness in reward is what makes fear 
the strongest influence dominating and 
directing human conduct. Yet many 
preachers deliberately abandon the ap- 
peal to fear and then wonder why their 
preaching does not move men to active 
righteousness. When more preachers 
recover from the delusion into which so 
many of them have fallen such complaints 
will diminish. For all human experience 
proves that the preaching that appeals 
to fear of punishment as well as to hope 
of reward is the preaching that is really 
effective — is the preaching of all the 
great preachers of the past and the present 
— is the preaching that moves." 

The statement of the text is exceedingly 
plain and the teaching is unquestioned. 
It is a good thing for us to-day to under- 
stand what sin is, for if we have a wrong 
conception of sin it naturally follows that 
we shall have a wrong conception of the 



168 And Judas Iscariot 

atonement. Without an understanding 
of sin there is no sense of guilt, and with- 
out the sense of guilt there is no cry for 
pardon. The best definitions that I 
have ever found for sin are written in the 
word of God. 

i 
1. "Whosoever committeth sin trans- 
gresseth also the law : for sin is the trans- 
gression of the law" (1 John 3:4). The 
word "transgression" means to go across. 
Does your life parallel God's law or 
cross it? Your answer to this question 
determines the measure of your sin. 
You have only to read the ten com- 
mandments and try to mold your life 
by them to find your answer. Better 
still, you have only to read these com- 
mandments in the light of Jesus' interpre- 
tation, where the look of lust is adultery 
and anger without cause is murder, to 
see how far short you have come; and 
if this is true certainly you are a sinner, 
and the text is for you. "The wicked 
shall not be unpunished." 



A Startling Statement 169 

2. "All unrighteousness is sin; and 
there is a sin not unto death" (1 John 
5: 17). Righteousness means right rela- 
tions with God. You may make ever 
so strong a claim to right living and 
speak ever so vehemently concerning the 
good that you are accomplishing in 
the world, but the first question for you 
to settle is this, What is your relation to 
God and what have you to say with 
reference to your acceptance or rejection 
of Jesus Christ? It is a solemn thought 
that whatever we do counts for nothing 
if our relation to God be wrong, w T hile 
the little that we may do may count for 
much if we have taken the right position 
before him. 

3. "Therefore to him that knoweth to 
do good, and doeth it not, to him it is 
sin" (James 4: 17). 

Omission, according to this scripture, 
is sin; neglected opportunity is sin, shirk- 
ing responsibility is sin, refusing to obey 
God is sin; and so when I ask you about 
being a Christian, if it is best and right and 



170 And Judas Iscariot 

you acknowledge that it is, then if you 
are not a Christian, this very fact is in 
itself sin, for when one knows the right 
and refuses to do it he is a sinner, and 
the text is true — "The wicked shall not 
be unpunished." 

4. "And he that doubteth is damned 
if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: 
for whatsoever is not of faith is sin" 
(Romans 14:23). Active doubt is sin. 
If you have a doubt concerning the sin- 
fulness of certain things, then to do those 
things is sin. If I have the least doubt 
concerning the amusements which may 
be questionable, or the position which 
may be doubtful, so long as a doubt or 
a question remains these things are sin; 
and the Bible states the fact that "The 
wicked shall not be unpunished. " 

5. "And when he is come, he will re- 
prove the world of sin, and of righteous- 
ness, and of judgment" (John 16:8). 
Unbelief is the chief est of sins. It is to re- 
ject Jesus Christ, it is to close in our own 
faces the door of hope, it is to trample the 



A Startling Statement 171 

blood of the Son of God under our feet, 
and it means also to insult the spirit of 
grace. 

One morning in the city of New York 
a man dashed down the street and past 
three men standing on the pier. They 
could not tell how old he was, nor how 
he was dressed, but they saw him jump 
upon the bulkhead near by, strip off his 
overcoat, coat and hat, and, before they 
could stir to save him, plunge off the 
end of the pier. There was a short rope 
lying near by, and seizing this a man ran 
with his companions to the point from 
which the man had jumped. They threw 
the rope toward the struggling figure 
that they could just make out below 
them. The rope fell a foot and a 
half too short. Then they ran back to 
the gas plant and got a longer rope. 
The ice was running so thick in the river 
that the man's head and shoulders were 
still to be seen above the water when 
they returned. Taking careful aim they 
threw the rope squarely across the strug- 



172 And Judas Iscariot 

gling form, shouting, "Catch it and 
we'll pull you in." The unknown man, 
however, making a last effort, threw the 
rope aside and shouted back: "Oh, to 

h with it! I'm through!" Then he 

sank out of sight. That is a picture of the 
man who, having offered to him mercy 
and grace in Jesus Christ, spurns all that 
God offers, and is therefore hopeless. 

Sin separates us from God. 

Sin separates us from each other. 

Sin pollutes us and we become impure. 

Sin deceives us and we are in danger 
and know it not. 

A friend of mine -walking along the 
streets of Cincinnati early one morning 
saw a young girl standing upon the very 
edge of the roof of one of the highest 
office buildings. She was carefully bal- 
ancing herself and every moment it 
seemed as if she would fall. The elevator 
was not running, but he made his way 
hurriedly to the roof of the building, 
walked carefully across it, seized her by 
the hand, drew her back and found 



A Startling Statement 173 

that she had risen in her sleep and all 
unconsciously was standing on the very 
brink of eternity. This is what sin does 
for us, and it is a solemn thought that 
for all such the text is true, "The wicked 
shall not be unpunished." 

ii 

I do not make my appeal, however, 
on the ground that the punishment is 
all for the future, for that is indeed sure. 
I ask you the question, Do you believe 
in heaven as a place of rewards ? If so, the 
same argument will prove the existence 
of hell. Do you reject hell, because 
it seems to you to be inconceivable? Then 
the same argument will blot heaven out 
of existence. What it is that awaits the 
wicked, I am sure I do not know — only 
that it is to be away from God, with the 
door of hope shut forever, and the Bible 
tells me that there is weeping and wailing 
and gnashing of teeth, for the wicked shall 
not be unpunished. I lift my voice 
against the punishment here, for sin is so 



174 And Judas Iscariot 

sure in its deadly work, it is so insidious 
in its influence, that before you know it 
it is upon you; just one day of trifling and 
you are gone. 

The people about Pittsburg will never 
forget the Cheswick mine horror in 1903, 
when one hundred and eighty-two dead 
men were taken from the mine. Under 
the direction of one of the mining engi- 
neers, a rescuing party started into the 
mine to see if there was any hope of 
saving the men who might be yet alive. 
The journey is described by one who 
volunteered to go with the engineer on 
his perilous journey. "When we got 
to the foot of the shaft, Mr. Taylor 
lighted a cigar. He blew out a great 
cloud of smoke and watched it drift into 
a passage. 'This way,' he said, "The 
smoke will follow the pure air draught.' 
So we went on, Mr. Taylor blowing clouds 
of smoke, and we following them. Sud- 
denly he wheeled and yelled; 'The black 
damp is coming!' The cigar smoke 
had stopped as though it had come to a 



A Startling Statement 175 

stone wall, and was now drifting over 
our heads. We ran with death at our 
heels, ran with our tongues dry and 
swelling and our eyes smarting like balls 
of fire. It seemed only a minute until 
Mr. Taylor shrieked and fell forward on 
his face. He crawled along for a while 
on his hands and knees, and then fell 
again and lay still. I stopped for a 
second, with the idea of carrying him. 
Then I realized how hopeless that was. 
We were still a quarter of a mile from the 
mouth of the pit. He was a very heavy 
man, and I, as you see, am small and 
weak. Again I ran choking and beating 
my head with my hands. I fell, cut my 
face, called upon God, struggled to my 
feet and fell again. So I plunged on, 
falling and fighting forward. Black mad- 
ness came upon me. The horrible, sick- 
ening after-damp was tearing my heart 
up through my dry throat. My brain 
was bursting through my temples. Then 
a stroke, as though by a sledge hammer, 
and I knew nothing more. They found 



176 And Judas Iscariot 

me at ten minutes past one Tuesday 
morning. At first they thought I was 
dead. Then they saw my head rise and 
fall while I weakly pounded on a rock 
with a stick that I had caught in my 
delirium. 55 This is to me a striking 
picture of what sin does for us. There 
is no one so strong but he may be over- 
powered by its awful influence. God save 
us from it, for "The wicked shall not 
be unpunished." 

in 

Oh, is there no hope? For it w r ould seem 
from the message thus far as if nothing 
but despair was ahead of us. Two ways 
to escape from the power of sin have 
been suggested; one is man's way, the 
other is God's. Let us consider them 
both. 

1. Man suggests reformation. But how 
about the sins of the past? They are 
still untouched. Man tells the sinner 
to do his best; but how about the will 
which has been weakened by sinful 
practices, and which seems unable to 



A Startling Statement 177 

act? Man tells the depraved man to 
change his surroundings; but how about 
the heart that is unclean? The fact is, 
man's way will not reach us. 

In January, 1904, the American Liner 
New York left Southampton and came 
into the New York harbor with a sad 
story to tell. A sailor was suspended 
over the side of the vessel making repairs 
when an enormous wave tore him away, 
and he was very soon under the forepart 
of the ship. The waves began to carry 
him away, and a life line was thrown to 
him with a buoy attached. The sailor, 
sometimes visible and then obscured by 
the rising of a swell, grasped the line, and 
a cheer went up. He took a half turn 
with the line around his waist, was rolling 
himself over into the bight of the line and it 
looked as if he would be saved. The 
sailors on deck were just about to haul 
in. The poor fellow's hands and fingers 
must have been numb, for he suddenly 
rolled out of the half-formed bight, 
losing his grip upon the line. 



178 And Judas Iscariot 

None of the passengers could help the 
man, none of the crew dared jump to 
his rescue, no boat could live in such a 
maelstrom. The sailor, who was strug- 
gling and being whirled around and bob- 
bing like a cork, his oilskins partially 
spreading out and sustaining him, kept 
drifting further and further away. 

Aroused by the commotion, the second 
officer came on deck just as the sailor 
lost his hold. Tossing aside his cap, 
overcoat and jacket, he bade the seamen 
take a bowline hitch around his body 
and lower him away. The volunteer 
life-saver was cheered^ by the passengers 
as he went over. It was bitter cold, the 
sleet sharp and the swells ugly. A strong 
swim in the trough of the seas and over 
the crests and the officer might reach 
the seaman. It was his only chance. 

He had no more than touched the 
spume before the waves hurled him 
against the side of the steamer again and 
again, bruising his ankle and knee, but 
he struck out bravely and gradually 



A Startling Statement 179 

drew nearer the sailor. For fifteen 
minutes the second officer struggled. 
During one of his brave spurts in the 
direction of the struggling man he looked 
up to the rail. The practiced eye of the 
seafaring man saw something that caused 
him suddenly to turn and breast his 
way back to the ship. The line was 
too short. The seaman holding the line 
attached to the officer had in his hands 
the mere end of it, and there was not 
another bit to pay out. It was a sixty 
fathom line, "all gone," and the officer 
yet only half way to the drowning man. 
It was too late to splice another. Had it 
been thought of in time the man might 
have been saved. A longer struggle 
was useless, and the officer allowed him- 
self to be hauled aboard, leaving the 
helpless man to go to his last account. 
That is always the difficulty with man's 
effort to save the lost. It does not reach 
far enough and fails just when it ought 
to hold. 

2. God's way. "The blood of Jesus 



180 And Judas Iscariot 

Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin," 
that is God's message. "Let the wicked 
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man 
his thoughts: and let him return unto 
the Lord, and he will have mercy upon 
him; and to our God, for he will abun- 
dantly pardon. " This is God's invitation. 
"I even I, am he that blotteth out thy 
transgressions for mine own sake, and 
will not remember thy sins." This is 
God's pledge, and he has never failed 
to keep it. 

In the old days, when England and 
Scotland were at war, the English came 
up against Bruce. They drove him from 
his castle and as he fled away from them 
they let loose his own bloodhounds and 
set them upon his trail. His case seemed 
hopeless. He could hear the bay of the 
hounds in the distance, and those who 
were with him had just about given 
up in despair; but not so with Bruce. 
He came to a stream, flowing through 
the forest, he plunged in, waded three 
bow-shots up the stream and then out 



A Startling Statement 181 

upon the other side. The hounds came 
up to the stream, stopped and sniffed ; they 
had lost the track. They turned back 
defeated, and Bruce in time won the 
day. Is it not like this with our sins? 
Like a pack of hounds they are after me ; 
wherever I flee they are close upon me. 
"The wages of sin is death/' I am told, 
but I have found the way of escape. Here 
flows a stream which runs red with the 
blood of Jesus Christ, and I plunge in 
and am free. 

" There is a fountain filled with blood, 
Drawn from ImmanueFs veins; 
And sinners plunged beneath that flood 
Lose all their guilty stains." 



THE GRACE OF GOD 

Text: "J, even 7, am he that blotteth out thy trans- 
gressions for mine own sake, and will not remember 
thy sins" — Isaiah 43: 25. 

In looking over an old volume of 
sermons preached by H. Grattan Guiness, 
forty-five years ago, I came across the 
message which he delivered with this 
text as a basis. So deep was the impres- 
sion made upon me by my first reading of 
the sermon that I have taken Mr. Guiness 5 
outline and ask your careful attention 
to its development. 

If one should enter a jewelry store and 
ask to see a diamond, or any other 
precious stone, the jeweler would first 
spread upon his show case a black cloth 
and then place the diamonds upon it, not 
only for protection but also in order 
that the black background might bring 
out distinctly the brilliancy and worth 
of the gems. So God gives this best of 

183 



184 And Judas Iscariot 

all his promises with the dark picture 
of sin clearly and thoughtfully portrayed. 
In verses twenty-second to the twenty- 
fourth we read, "But thou hast not called 
upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been 
weary of me, O Israel. Thou hast not 
brought me the small cattle of thy burnt 
offerings; neither hast thou honored me 
with thy sacrifices. I have not caused 
thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied 
thee with incense. Thou hast bought 
me no sweet cane with money, neither 
hast thou filled me with the fat of thy 
sacrifices : but thou hast made me to serve 
with thy sins, thou hast wearied me 
with thine iniquities/' 

In these verses God says that his people 
have not called upon him in prayer, they 
have not presented their offerings, neither 
have they presented unto him themselves. 
He also affirms that they have wearied of 
him, and that they have also wearied 
him with their iniquities, and then he 
exclaims, "I have not caused thee to 
serve with an offering, nor wearied thee 



The Grace of God 185 

with incense," and with these clear state- 
ments he gives us the gracious statement 
of the text, "I, even I, am he that blotteth 
out thy transgressions for mine own sake, 
and will not remember thy sins." 

Mr. Guiness gives us four beautiful 
thoughts in this text concerning our sins. 

First: They are blotted out from God's 
Book. 

Second: They are blotted out with 
God's hand. 

Third : They are blotted out for his sake. 

Fourth: They are blotted from his 
memory. 

A more admirable outline of a text of 
Scripture I do not know, a more cheering 
message to a child of God I have never 
found. 

I 

Not long ago, in Chicago, a young man 
was induced to confess to one whom he 
thought was his friend the killing of 
his father and mother. As the confession 
was being made, as he supposed to but 
one person, it was all being taken down 



186 And Judas Iscariot 

by those who were near enough to hear 
him speak, and when he appeared before 
the court his own confession was used 
against him and sent him to a life im- 
prisonment in the penitentiary. What 
was true of this young man is true of 
us. Every sermon the minister preaches 
is recorded, every word an individual 
speaks is put down. It is a solemn 
thought to realize, that at the judgment 
we shall give account for even our idle 
words. 

Science has proven that our acts, our 
words and even our thoughts make their 
indelible record. 

Not long ago in our home we came 
across a long-unused phonograph. We 
started it going, placing upon it one of the 
cylinders which had been packed away 
with the phonograph, and were startled 
to hear the voice of one who had been 
dead for years. We heard the message 
he dictated, the song in which he joined 
and the laugh with which he closed it, 
and yet his voice has long been silent 



The Grace of God 187 

in death. There is not a sin of your youth 
which has not made its record, not a 
passion of your mature years that does 
not stand somewhere against you, not 
an act, a feeling or an imagination that 
has not been indelibly written; not all 
the changes of time, not all the efforts of 
man, can wipe these things out. 

In the British Museum there is a piece 
of stone not larger than the average Bible 
at least four thousand years old, and in 
the center of the stone there is a mark of 
a bird's foot; four thousand years ago 
the track was made, and for four thou- 
sand years the record has stood. If these 
things are true of us — and they are, 
according to the Word of God — then what 
prospect is there for us but that of eternal 
punishment? For when we stand at the 
judgment there shall appear before us 
the sins of omission and the sins of com- 
mission, the sins we have forgotten and 
the sins we have but recently committed 
against ourselves, against our fellow men, 
and against God. 



188 And Judas Iscariot 

It is indeed a black picture, and with 
whitened faces and rapidly beating hearts 
we ask, Is there any hope? I bring you 
God's gracious answer to this important 
question: "I, even I, am he that blotteth 
out thy transgressions for mine own sake, 
and will not remember thy sins. " Notice, 
it is the voice of God speaking. "I, even 
I," he exclaims, "will blot out your trans- 
gressions. " 

It is, first of all, a commercial term. We 
were in debt to God, hopelessly in debt, 
and our obligation has been canceled; 
over against our sin is placed the righteous- 
ness of the Son of God> and we are free. 

"Jesus paid it all, 
All to him I owe; 
Sin had left a crimson stain, 
He washed it white as snow." 

It is also a chemical expression, for it 
is a picture of God applying the blood 
of Jesus Christ to every page of the 
written record. The sins of our youth 
long ago passed out of mind; the sins of 
our manhood, which have taken up every 



The Grace of God 189 

part of our being, the sins of to-day — 
all have gone, for he himself has blotted 
them out. When we realize that we' are 
forgiven of God it means more than if we 
were forgiven of men, for in the might of 
his forgiveness our past sins are gone, 
they shall not even be mentioned against 
us; the *fear of judgment is taken away, 
for Jesus himself says, "Verily, verily, 
I say unto you, He that heareth my word, 
and believeth on him that sent me, hath 
everlasting life, and shall not come into 
condemnation; but is passed from death 
unto life" (John 5:24). It is the Pass- 
over story over again, "When I see the 
blood, I will pass over you." Thus are 
our sins blotted out. 

ii 

It is with God's hand that the work is 
done; and for very many reasons this 
is a great comfort to us. 

First: Because it was God's hand that 
made the record, he it was who put down 
all your sins. He never rested in his 



190 And Judas Iscariot 

work; week after week, month after 
month, year after year, the recording 
work was being done until your record 
became blacker than the blackest mid- 
night; and behold the hand that made 
the record blots it out. 

Second : It was his hand against which 
you offended. Your sin was against 
yourself. It is true it hurt your char- 
acter, lowered your self-respect; but more 
especially was it against God, for you 
despised his authority, forsook his service, 
broke his laws, defied his justice; you 
grieved his spirit, and you crucified his 
Son. And behold it is^ the hand against 
which you committed all these offenses 
which blotted out your transgressions. 

Third: It is the offended hand which 
blots them out. It was the hand that 
opened the fountains of the deep, and 
behold the floods came, the waters above 
and the waters below clasped their hands 
and destruction was everywhere save in 
the Ark. It was his hand that brought 
destruction upon the cities of the plain, 



The Grace of God 191 

consuming them with a mighty flame, 
and it was his hand that opened the 
sea for the children of Israel and then 
closed the sea over the pursuing Egypt- 
ians. The very thought of the offended 
hand makes us tremble, but behold, it 
is this hand that blots out all our trans- 
gressions. 

Fourth: It is the hand of justice that 
does the work. The same hand wrote, 
"The wicked shall not go unpunished/ 5 
and wrote again, "The soul that sinneth 
it shall die," and wrote yet again, "The 
wages of sin is death." This hand is 
stretched forth in our behalf. 

I doubt not the question has often 
come to us, "How can God be just and 
be the justifier of them that believe?" In 
the light of such statements as these just 
quoted I am sure it is for this reason — 
it is for the offering of the just for the un- 
just. He made him to be sin for us 
who knew no sin, that we might be made 
the righteousness of God in him. A man 
was needed for such an offering, and 



192 And Judas Iscariot 

Christ became man. The man required 
must be born under the law, so Christ 
came in the likeness of sinful flesh. 
The man born under the law must be 
without sin, so he was born pure. The 
man born under the law and without 
sin must be willing to die, and so he came 
saying, "I delight to do thy will, O God." 
And the man born under the law, without 
sin and willing to die must be able to 
provide an atonement which would make 
the wandering sinner and the love of God 
one, and so Christ at the command of 
God was thus furnished a sacrifice of 
sufficient power and magnitude to save 
the whole world. It is this hand of God 
that blots out our transgressions. 

Fifth: It is the hand of the Supreme 
Being that does the work. What a word 
of encouragement this is. It was this 
hand that made the worlds and hurled 
them off into space. It was this hand 
that created man and made him in the 
likeness of God. It was this hand 
that formed the countless number of 



The Grace of God 193 

angels, and has ever directed their 
heavenly movements. It was this hand 
that wrote the law upon Sinai. And it 
was this hand that holds the keys of the 
kingdoms of heaven and hell. He blots 
out our transgressions. From his decision 
there can be no appeal. With such a w r ork 
as this, who shall lay anything to the 
charge of God's elect? Would God that 
justifieth do it, or Christ that died consent 
to it? In the light of such a thought the 
Apostle Paul says, "For I am persuaded, 
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, 
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things 
present, nor things to come, nor height, 
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall 
be able to separate us from the love of 
God, wilich is in Christ Jesus our Lord" 
(Romans 8:38-39). 

in 

Our sins are blotted out for his sake. 

God saves the sinner not alone because of 

pity for the sinner, and certainly not simply 

because he is in danger of hell, but in 



194 And Judas Iscariot 

order that he may glorify himself; and 
this is no selfish glorification, but rather 
in order that he may show to us now and 
throughout all the ages what he really 
is. God has made different revelations of 
himself. We have beheld his wisdom 
in creation, in his providences and in 
his word. We have seen his justice 
in that he gave his only begotten Son to 
die for poor lost men. We have seen his 
power in the working of miracles and the 
transforming effect of his grace. It re- 
mains for us to see his love in the story 
of salvation, for until we behold him as 
the Savior of the sinner we do not know 
him. It is this that shall make us not 
only rejoice here in time but rejoice with 
joy unspeakable in eternity. The Apostle 
Paul writes in Ephesians 2-7-8, "That 
in the ages to come he might shew the 
exceeding riches of his grace in his kind- 
ness toward us through Christ Jesus. 
For by grace are ye saved through faith; 
and that not of yourselves: it is the gift 
of God." 



The Grace of God 195 

IV 

Our sins are blotted out from God's 
memory. The last of this wonderful 
text is the best. When we detect a failure 
of memory here in this world among our 
friends it is an evidence of weakness, but 
it is no weakness in God to forget. This 
is but another one of those expressions 
descriptive of God in which human 
language is used to describe a thought 
and in which human language is 
too poor an agency to convey all the 
depth of the meaning. It is just another 
picture of God stooping down to meet 
our weakness and it is God assuring us 
that our sins are gone completely It 
is as if they never had existed, for they 
shall never stand against us and in the 
day of judgment they shall not even be 
mentioned. Our sins must have been a 
grief to him, just as the sin of an earthly 
child is the source of sorrow to an earthly 
parent; but they are so no longer, for 
he has forgotten. The Bible represents 
God as being angry because of our trans- 



196 And Judas Iscariot 

gressions, but if ever there was anger 
with him it is so no longer, for you cannot 
be angry with a person whose injury 
against you you have forgotten entirely. 
We do not in this world speak of what we 
have forgotten, nor will God speak of our 
sins. We do not punish what we have 
forgotten, nor will God permit us to 
be punished, for he has blotted out our 
transgressions and will remember them 
no more. There is no awaiting penalty 
for your sin, there is no judgment to 
meet at the great white throne, there is 
no hell for you at the last, for your sins, 
for Christ's sake, have been forgotten. 

If you cast a stone into the water and 
it sinks away there is for a time a ripple, 
where the stone has gone down; but in a 
moment it has gone forever, you can 
see it no more. So God has cast our 
sins into the sea and the place where they 
have gone cannot even be found. 

v 

But what must I do to take advantage 
of all this gracious offer of God? I answer 



The Grace of God 197 

according to the Scripture. There must 
be true repentance; repentance is a change 
of mind, it is having a new mind for God. 
There must be regeneration; regeneration 
is a change of nature, it is a new heart 
for God. There must be conversion; 
conversion is a change of living and a new 
life for God. If we would be born from 
above we must accept God's word. 

Two friends were conversing one even- 
ing. One of them with a skeptical mind 
had just rejected the Bible because it 
did not tell him the things that he would 
know. He insisted on knowing how the 
worlds were made, and demanded that 
he should be told concerning the origin 
of heaven and why God permitted it, 
and because the Bible failed here he 
would have none of it. Just as his friend 
was leaving the skeptic said to him, "Here 
is my lantern. I want you to take it and 
it will light you home." But the lantern 
was refused by the Christian man, "for," 
said he, "this lantern will not light up 
the mountains in the distance, nor the 



198 And Judas Iscariot 

valley stretching away at my feet." His 
friend was amazed. "Man," said he, "take 
the lantern; it will make a road for you 
across the moor and light up your path- 
way home." "Oh," said his friend, 
"if that is true I will take it; but listen 
to me. So is the Bible not for distant 
paths of investigation; it is not so 
much to tell us concerning creation and 
existence — we shall know these things by 
and by. It is for the path at your feet and 
it will light you home a space at a time." 
The skeptical man saw it in an instant, 
he took God's w r ord and came back again 
to the faith of his childhood. 

So I offer it to you with its promises as 
of lanterns, if its commands are care- 
fully received and followed out. You, too, 
may pass from darkness into light and 
you may claim from God this text of mine 
which says, "I even I, am he that blotteth 
out thy transgressions for mine own sake, 
and will not remember thy sins." 



CONVERSION 

Text: "And said, Verily I say unto you, Except 
ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall 
not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." — Matt. 18: 3. 

Jesus Christ was the world's greatest 
teacher and preacher. Multitudes fol- 
lowed him because he taught them, not 
as the scribes, but as one having author- 
ity. He came to them with the deepest 
truth of God, but couched in such familiar 
expressions, and told in such a fascinating 
way, that all men heard him and went 
their way rejoicing that so great a teacher 
had come into the world as the messenger 
of God. He desired to speak to them 
concerning the kingdom, and seeing on 
the distant hillside a farmer sowing his 
seed, he gave them the parable of the 
sower; and every farmer in his company 
began to understand his message. He 
told them the story of a woman baking 
bread, and in the spreading of the leaven 

199 



200 And Judas Iscariot 

every housekeeper had a vision of one of 
the deepest principles of the coming king- 
dom. He gave them the account of the 
boy who went away from his home, 
breaking his mother's heart, and, accord- 
ing to tradition, putting her in her grave; 
causing his old father to bow his head in 
shame again and again, and yet in spite 
of it all, his father loving him; and every 
listener learned from the story a lesson 
concerning the love of God which could 
have been given to him in no other way. 
He was acknowledged as the world's 
greatest teacher and preacher. 

The text is introduced by the word 
u verily," and this is peculiar to Jesus. 
The word calls especial attention to the 
coming message. It was as if he had 
sounded a bell and said, "Stop and listen" ; 
and wherever the word "verily" occurs 
the Bible reader would do well to give 
heed to the message of Jesus. 

What hope is there for the moralist when 
Jesus said, "Except ye be converted"? 
What hope can there be for the man who 



Conversion 201 

says God is so merciful that he will not 
allow him finally to be lost when Jesus said 
"Ye shall not enter into the kingdom, 
except ye be converted and become as 
little children." 

It will be necessary for us to read care- 
fully verses eight and nine in this eight- 
eenth chapter of Matthew, if we would 
be impressed with the importance of con- 
version. There are solemn words here. 
"Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot 
offend thee, cut them off, and cast them 
from thee: it is better for thee to enter 
into life halt or maimed, rather than hav- 
ing two hands or two feet to be cast 
into everlasting fire. And if thine eye 
offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it 
from thee: it is better for thee to enter 
into life with one eye, rather than having 
two eyes to be cast into hellfire." 

I have been told that there are two 
ways of reading this text. The first is 
as we have it in the King James version; 
the second would make it read thus: 
"Verily, I say unto you, except ye convert 



202 And Judas Iscariot 

yourselves and become as little children, 
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of 
heaven. " Those who hold to this second 
reading say that there is a difference be- 
tween regeneration and conversion — that 
regeneration is God's part of the contract, 
while conversion is ours; that conversion 
is simply having the willing mind, while 
regeneration is God's imparting to us his 
own life; and to convert one's self is 
simply to be willing to be saved. And this 
is all-important, for even God himself 
cannot save us against our wills. But 
I prefer to use, in my treatment of the 
text, the generally accepted idea of con- 
version, and wish my message to center 
around the following questions: What 
is conversion? How may I be converted? 
Do I know when I was converted? How 
may I know certainly? 



What is conversion? I own a piece of 
property, and you desire to purchase it. 
You pay me a price, and the property is 



Conversion 203 

transferred from my ownership to yours. 
It is a converted piece of property. This 
is just a hint as to what conversion is. 
We were sold under sin; and if any should 
object to this expression, we have sold 
ourselves under sin. Jesus came and in 
the shedding of his own blood paid the 
price of our redemption. As a child of 
God, I am bought back from bondage 
to freedom. To be converted is to be 
turned about. Going away from God, 
I turn towards him. With my face set 
away from heaven, I deliberately turn 
and accept Jesus, who said, "I am the 
way, the truth, and the life. " To be con- 
verted is to cross the line which separates 
light from darkness, and may be done 
as easily as if one drew a line in the path 
before him and stepped over it. Both 
of these would be by the act of one's will ; 
only it is to be remembered that when 
by faith we accept Jesus there is im- 
parted to us a knowledge which comes 
from the Holy Ghost alone; while we seem 
to be acting in our own strength, yet 



204 And Judas Iscariot 

really it is in the strength of God. Let it 
be remembered, however, that no two 
people may have exactly the same ex- 
perience. There is an illustration of this 
in the healing of the blind men in the 
New Testament. I can imagine them 
having a convention, and each giving 
his testimony. One declares that the 
only way to receive your sight is to have 
clay and spittle put upon your eyes and 
to wash in the pool of Siloam. Another 
ridicules this experience and declares that 
only the touch of the fingers of Jesus is 
necessary. Still another speaks and em- 
phatically declares that even the touch of 
Jesus is superfluous, for at the command 
of Jesus he saw clearly. Another says 
that instantaneous sight is impossible, 
and describes his own experience, when 
he saw men like trees, walking. But 
when all have given their testimony, they 
finally unite in declaring that whereas 
they once were blind, now they can see; 
and after all this is the important matter. 
A friend of mine described a numbe* of 



Conversion 205 

people who came to view "The Angelus" 
that celebrated masterpiece of Millet's. 
Some people admired the perspective; 
others, the figure of the man; others, that 
of the woman. One man simply stood 
aghast as he looked, and exclaimed," What 
a marvelous frame that picture has!" 
and no two people expressed the same 
opinion concerning the masterpiece. How 
could we expect them to have the same 
experience in coming to Christ? 

It may be that some will say, "Why in- 
sist upon conversion when my life is a 
moral one?" And my answer is that 
the difficulty with morality is that it is 
worked out according to men's standard 
and falls far short of God's. 

In my first pastorate I had a blind man 
as one of my hearers. He used to walk 
about the village where I preached, gener- 
ally without a guide, and apparently 
went as easily as a man with eyes. He 
had a little stick in his hands, with which 
he touched the trees and the fences, and 
seemed to know by the very sound where 



206 And Judas Iscariot 

he was. One day at noon, when he 
should be going home, I saw him walking 
rapidly away from his home. I finally con- 
vinced him that he was going in the w^rong 
direction, and he asked me to set him 
straight, which I did. Going in the new 
direction, he used his stick in the same 
fashion, used his legs in the same mechan- 
ical way, but the difference between the 
man in the first instance and the second 
was this — that in the first picture he was 
going away from home, while in the 
second he was going homeward rapidly. 
The trouble with man's morality is that 
it is self-centered and not Christ centered 
if he is rejected. 

ii 

How may I be converted? For from 
the text which says ''Except ye be con- 
verted" it would seem as if some power 
outside of ourselves must be working in 
our behalf, and this is true. The founda- 
tion of it all is the atonement by Christ, his 
sacrificial death upon the cross. Reject- 



Conversion 207 

ing this truth, there is no hope for us. 
In our sinful condition, the spirit of God 
rouses us, convicts us of sin, convinces 
us of our need of a Savior, and finally God, 
in his grace, gives us the strength to 
yield, and we pass from darkness to 
light. 

Sometimes great need drives us to 
light, as in the case of Nicodemus; while 
again great sin compels us to come to 
him, as in the case of the thief on the cross. 
But whether it be need or sin, let us 
start with little faith, if we have no more, 
and God will meet us the moment we 
start. I once conducted services in a 
soldiers' home. The commanding officer 
told me, when the service was concluded, 
of a former inmate, an old sea captain, 
who came to the institution a confessed 
infidel. He refused te attend any of the 
services in the chapel; finally he was 
taken ill, and then the commanding 
officer entered his room, asking him to 
read the Scriptures, which he declined 
to do. Again he came suggesting that he 



208 And Judas Iscariot 

read the Bible to see if there was any part 
he could believe, and a bottle of red ink 
and a pen were left by his bedside, the 
officer suggesting that he mark any verse 
red if he could accept it. This appealed 
to the dying man and he said, "Where 
shall I read?" The officer said "Begin 
with John's Gospel." And he did so. 
He read through two chapters without 
making a mark, and through fifteen 
verses of the third chapter. Then he came 
to the sixteenth verse, which is a picture 
of the very heart of God, and he reached 
for his pen and marked the verse red. 
When this much of the story had been 
told we reached the old captain's room and 
passed the threshold to find the bed 
empty, for he was gone. "I wish you 
might have seen his Bible," said the 
captain. "I sent it to his family recently. 
There was not a page in it that was not 
marked red." Over his bed swung a 
pasteboard anchor; marked upon it were 
these words — "I have cast my anchor in 
safe harbor." For he had gone home. 



Conversion 209 



in 

Do you know when you were converted? 
That is, do you know the exact time? 
There are two extremes in experiences 
in this matter. I recall the experience of 
an old man who sat in my lecture room 
one Friday evening, and just as the hands 
of the clock marked the hour 9 : 30 he 
said "I will," and came to Christ. That 
was the moment of his conversion. But, 
as for myself, I have not had this experi- 
ence; I do not know just when I turned to 
Christ. It must have been when I was 
but a small child. One of the best women 
I know has had an experience similar to 
mine, while one of the greatest preachers 
in the land has told me that he was a 
drunkard until he was 21 years of age, 
and then, on his knees, by his father's 
death bed, he came to the Savior. After 
all, it is not so much a question of the 
knowledge of the day, or the hour, or the 
month of one's conversion as "Do we 
now know Christ? 



210 And Judas Iscariot 

IV 

How may we know that we have passed 
from death into life? Certainly not with 
our feelings as a proof, for they change 
as the sands shift on the seashore. 
If our feelings be the foundation, then 
we may be in the kingdom and out of it 
a great many times a day. It is not always 
to be determined by a great change in 
one's life, for men who have not accepted 
Christ have had such an experience. 
There is only one sure way of knowing it, 
and that is on the authority of the word 
of God. John 5: 24, "Verily, verily, I 
say unto you, he that heareth my word, 
and believeth on him that sent me, hath 
everlasting life, and shall not come into 
condemnation: but is passed from death 
unto life. 55 And John 6:47, "Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth 
on me hath everlasting life." 

It is said that Napoleon while rid- 
ing; in front of his soldiers lost control 
of his horse, when a private stepped from 



Conversion 21 1 

the ranks, seized the horse's bridle and 
saved the officer's life. Napoleon saluted 
him and called him captain. "But, sir," 
said he, "I am not a captain, only a pri- 
vate." "Then, "said Napoleon, "I will 
commission you captain. " And immedi- 
ately he stepped into the company of those 
officers ; they ordered him to the ranks, but 
he said, "I am a captain." "By whose 
authority?" they said. If then he had 
replied, "Because I feel like a captain," 
how ridiculous it would have been! 
Pointing to Napoleon, he said, "I am a 
captain, because he said it." Thus with 
God's word as a foundation we stand 
secure. 



Do not forget to notice that we are told 
that we must come like little children. 
Not like the philosophers of the world, 
but like little children who always trust 
implicitly those who are about them. 
If we would be saved, we must be will- 
ing to be taught, and we must some 



212 And Judas Iscariot 

time make a beginning. Then why not 
now? 

Some years ago John B. Gough visited 
a home in a New England city, and the 
heartbroken mother told him that her 
boy, who was an inebriate, was confined 
in an upper room in the house, which 
was much like a cell. The great temper- 
ance leader went to speak to him and said 
' 'Edward, why don't you pray?" and he 
said, "Because I don't believe in prayer." 
"But," said Mr. Gough, "You must be- 
lieve in God." And he replied, "I do not 
believe in anything. " "I am sure you are 
wrong in this," said he, "for I know that 
you believe in your mother. " Then there 
came a new look into his face when he 
said, "Yes, I believe in her." "Well," 
said Mr. Gough, "you must then believe 
in love. Let us fall upon our knees and 
pray." And the young man began, "O 
love," and the spirit of God said unto 
him, "God is love," and he changed his 
prayer and said "O God," and then 
came the same spirit and said, "God so 



Conversion 213 

loved the world that he gave his only 
begotten son/ 5 and he said "O Christ," 
and when he said this the deed was done. 
He immediately rose from his knees, 
and he has been free ever since. 



FIVE KINGS IN A CAVE 

Text: " And it came to pass, when they brought out 
those kings unto Joshua, thai Joshua called for all 
the men of Israel, and said unto the captains of the 
men of war which went with him, Come near, put 
your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they 
came near, and put their feet upon the necks of them. 
And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dis- 
mayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall 
the Lord do to all your enemies against whom ye 
fight"— Joshua 10:24-25. 

The history of the children of Israel 
is one of the most fascinating stories ever 
written. It abounds in illustrations which 
are as practical and helpful as any that 
may be used to-day, drawn from our 
every-day experience. God certainly 
meant that we should use their story in 
this way, for in the New Testament we 
read that the things which happened 
to them were as ensamples for us. 
The word "ensample" means type, or 
figure, or illustration. 

215 



216 And Judas Iscariot 

To appreciate this text and the story of 
the five imprisoned kings we must go 
back a little bit to the place where the 
leadership of Moses had been transferred 
to Joshua. God is never at a loss for a 
man; his plans are never frustrated. If 
Moses is to be set aside Joshua is in prepa- 
ration for his position. Doubtless Joshua 
may have felt somewhat restrained, as he 
was kept in a position of not very great 
prominence, but he certainly realized 
when he stood as the leader of the children 
of Israel that all things had been working 
together for the good of his leadership, 
and doubtless he praised Jehovah for his 
goodness to him. There are many 
incidents in connection with the immedi- 
ate story of the children of Israel which 
should be mentioned here. 

When they were ready to move towards 
Canaan Joshua told them that when the 
soles of the feet of the priests touched the 
water of the Jordan the water would 
stand on either side before them and they 
could pass dry shod into Canaan. Sud- 



Five Kings in a Cave 217 

denly the marching began. They stood 
within three feet of the waters, which 
ran the same as they had been running 
for years; then two feet, then one, and 
then six inches, but there was no parting 
of the waters before them. Let us remem- 
ber that God had said, "When the soles 
of the feet of the priests touch the water 
they shall separate. " And it was even as 
he said, and on dry land the children of 
Israel passed over to the other side. It 
is a perfectly natural thing for one who 
is unregenerate to say, "Why insist upon 
confession, and the acceptance of Christ, 
and how can the mere acceptance of the 
Savior save me from the penalty and the 
power of sin?" But a countless multitude 
will rise to-day to say, "It was when we 
stepped out upon what we could not 
understand and what seemed as impass- 
able and impossible as the parting of 
the waters of the Jordan that God gave 
us light and peace/' 

When once they were in Canaan what 
an interesting story that is in connection 



218 And Judas Iscariot 

with Rahab of Jericho ! The spies had 
entered her home and a mob outside was 
seeking them that they might put them 
to death. Rahab promised them de- 
liverance, only she exacted from them a 
promise in return that they would save 
alive her father and her mother and her 
loved ones; and when she let them down 
by means of a cord from the window of 
her home they said to her, "Bind this 
scarlet cord in the window and gather 
your loved ones here and they shall be 
saved. " And when the children of Israel 
had marched about Jericho and the walls 
were about to fall, ^suddenly they lifted 
their eyes and they saw the red cord 
fluttering from the window, and while all 
else was destroyed Rahab and all her 
loved ones were saved. 

What a little thing evidently stood 
between them and death — just a red 
cord ! And yet as a matter of fact it is 
only a red cord that is between us and 
death — namely, the blood of the Son of 
God; for, as in the Old Testament times 



Five Kings in a Cave 219 

when God saw the blood and the de- 
stroying angel passed over the home, so 
in these New Testament times the blood 
which has been received by faith insures 
us our safety and we are set free from 
sin's penalty and sin's power. 

The story of Achan is a note of warn- 
ing. It is rather singular that when the 
children of Israel had taken Jericho they 
failed at Ai, and yet not singular when we 
realize that one man had sinned in all 
the company. He had taken gold and 
silver and a Babylonish garment and had 
hidden the same in his tent, and this was 
in direct disobedience to the commands 
of Joshua. The sad thing about sin 
is that we cannot sin and suffer alone. 
Our friends suffer, our kindred must 
bear a part of the woe with us. When 
Achan sinned the children of Israel 
lost a victory. Sin is progressive. In 
the seventh chapter of Joshua and the 
twenty-first verse, we read, "When I 
saw among the spoils a goodly Babylon- 
ish garment, and two hundred shekels of 



220 And Judas Iscariot 

silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels 
weight, then I coveted them, and took 
them; and behold they are hid in the 
earth in the midst of my tent, and the 
silver under it." And you will notice 
that, first he saw, then he coveted, then 
he took. It is always thus ; a sinful imag- 
ination will lead to outbreaking iniquity, 
and a small sin encouraged will ultimately 
mean disgrace. 

The story of the Gibeonites is also inter- 
esting. They had heard of the power 
of the children of Israel and were 
afraid of them; but they made up their 
minds to deceive them,. So, lest the Israel- 
ites should think that they came from a 
near by territory and therefore should 
turn against them they put on old clothes, 
wore old shoes upon their feet and carried 
musty bread in their baggage. Then they 
stood before Israel and said, "We have 
come from a far country; look at our 
clothing, it is worn out ; and at our shoes, 
they are in holes ; and at our bread, it was 
fresh when we started, it is musty to-day." 



Five Kings in a Cave 221 

And Joshua said, "We will make them 
hewers of wood and drawers of water/' 
and they were saved from death but they 
served in bondage. Let this be remem- 
bered always that deception inevitably 
means bondage. One is in bondage to 
his conscience, for it constantly reproves 
him. He is in bondage to the one he has 
deceived, for he can never stand honestly 
before him. He is most of all in bondage 
to his sin, for he will surely be found out. 
The Amorites were against the children 
of Israel and they w r ere a great company. 
It is in connection with their struggle 
against this power that the text is written. 



The Israelites started in this conflict 
with a mighty power against them, as we 
have seen. But so have we. There are 
first of all the tendencies of our old nature 
against which we must fight, for just as 
with the law of gravitation if I take my 
hand away from a book or a stone it 
falls to the floor or the ground because 



222 And Judas Iscariot 

this law pulls it downward, so there is a 
law in my members and has been in the 
life of every man since Adam's day pulling 
me away from the true to the false. It is 
for this reason that it is easier to do wrong 
than to do right, to be untrue than to be 
true. Then there is against us the very 
world in which we live. Its atmosphere, 
its business, even its social life is tainted 
with that which is sinful or to say the 
least questionable, and he who lives in the 
world and is in any sense of it has a hard 
battle to fight. But there are two special 
things which are against us. 

First: The sins which we have en- 
couraged. It may be in the beginning 
very small, but Satan is perfectly satisfied 
if he can have the least hold upon the life 
of the one whom he washes to wrong. I 
read in a Chicago paper the story of a 
woman who was making a heroic struggle 
against an awful curse. She had become 
addicted to the use of morphine. For 
fourteen years she was a consumer of 
the drug. Apparently she could not 



Five Kings in a Cave 223 

shake off the habit. Building up a resist- 
ance to the action of the drug, her system 
became accustomed to enormous quan- 
tities of it. She could not eat, nor sleep, 
nor work without it. Most of her scanty 
earnings went to purchase it. She was a 
seamstress, and by toiling many hours 
a day managed to get enough money to buy 
it. Some years back she had been a happy 
wife and mother. Her husband loved 
her; she was devoted to him and to their 
two children. She lost him; she lost the 
care of her children; rapidly she drifted 
away from them. The powerful narcotic 
helped to deaden her pain. When her 
anguish became unbearable a double 
dose of it would enable her to drowse 
away the hours. 

"I will never again touch or taste 
morphine, so help me God!" she said. 
Immediately she discontinued the use of 
the drug wholly. She could get no sleep; 
she could not swallow food half the time 
or retain it. She was beset by horrible 
visions. She was racked by an inexpress- 



224 And Judas Iscariot 

ible longing. But she held on. Those 
who knew her and watched her agonizing 
battle with astonishment and sympathy 
told her that she was killing herself. 
"It may be/ 5 she would answer, "but 
I shall die true to my oath." "But," 
they would urge, "a habit like yours, 
which has obtained for years, should 
be broken gradually." "I will master 
it. I have blotted it from my life," she 
would answer. "I shall quit it this way 
even if I go into the grave. It has mas- 
tered me ; it has cost me my home, hus- 
band and children; now I will master it." 
She started at shadows, her nights were 
nights of horror; she would bury her nails 
in the palms of her hands and compress 
her lips to keep from screaming. There 
was no rest for her. Still she tried to 
work and grew weaker. "You cannot 
give me that," she said, "I remember 
my oath. Give me any medicine you 
choose save opium. God would for- 
sake me now if I forsook my promise 
to him." The physician remonstra- 



Five Kings in a Cave 225 

ted with her, but in vain, so he gave 
her a substitute which failed of its 
effect, as he knew it would, and she died. 
Even when the hand of death had 
clutched her grimly, though her terrific 
sufferings would have been allayed by 
the poison, she refused to take it. Any 
person in the room would have bought it 
for her and administered it gladly, so 
that she might pass away in peace, but 
she would not prove traitor to herself. 
She was a friendless woman except for 
acquaintances recently made. Her life 
had been sad and hard. Held in the grip 
of an enemy that set its mark upon her, 
she was shunned and went her downward 
way alone. Those who were with her say 
that just before the end came she smiled, 
knowing that she had won her fight; and 
yet years ago she began to trifle with sin, 
and it had mastered her. 

Again, we have against us sins which 
not only have been encouraged but have 
been committed again and again until they 
have become a habit of our lives, and he 



226 And Judas Iscariot 

who has such a sin as this finds himself 
in the grip of one who is a tyrant. 

In a city paper the other day I came 
across the story of a man who once 
had some prominence in the world but 
began to go wrong, naturally drifted 
towards the evil and finally found himself 
surrounded by the lowest of companions. 
Because of his natural ability he easily 
assumed leadership. 

The particular form of crime they 
practiced was administering chloral to 
those who sat at the bar in the saloon to 
drink. They did this by attracting the 
attention of the man who was to drink 
to something else in the room and then 
the deadly knock-out drops would be ad- 
ministered and they would rob the man. 
One night the dose was too strong and 
the victim died. The one who caused 
his death came before the city authorities 
recently to give himself up and pitifully 
ask that he might be quickly sent to death 
to pay the penalty of his crime for, said 
he, "From that moment my mind has 



Five Kings in a Cave 227 

never been at rest. I wandered about 
town for two or three days trying to get 
rid of the sight of that fellow's face; but 
at night was when I suffered. The mo- 
ment I dozed off I could see him in my 
dreams beckoning and laughing as he 
dragged me over some cliff, and I waked 
up cold with fear. No one knows what 
I suffered. I left the city. I went to Den- 
ver. I went to Butte. I traveled every- 
where, but wherever I went night and 
day that dead man was hovering around 
me. I couldn't sleep and my mind began 
to weaken. One night I went into a 
gambling den. I thought the excitement 
might drive that vision out of my head. 
I played roulette. I bet on the black; the 
red won. And right before me I saw 
that printer's face just like I see you now, 
grinning as the dealer dragged in my 
money. I ran out of that club like a 
crazy man and wandered about town till 
I saw a freight train pulling out of the 
yards. I climbed into an empty box car 
and lay down in the corner to rest. For 



228 And Judas Iscariot 

a few moments the face was gone. Sud- 
denly a flash of lightning lit up that car 
as bright as this cell, and there, just a 
couple of feet from me, I saw that man 
I'd killed plainer than I see you. He 
reached out and caught me by the arm. 
I screamed and jumped out of the car. 
They found me next day lying beside the 
track; and when they got me to a hospital, 
as I hope for pardon, that thing's black 
and blue finger marks showed on my 
shoulder. I've been in a lot of places 
since that but I never got over it. Finally 
it got so bad I couldn't stand it and I 
came back to Chicago to confess." And 
just as we have all these things against us 
so the children of Israel had the Amorites 
against them and the five kings were 
unitedly arrayed to fight them. 

ii 

But there was a sure deliverance for 
Israel and there is a sure deliverance for 
us. God promised to be with Joshua and 
his people. Joshua 1:5, " There shall 



Five Kings in a Cave 229 

not any man be able to stand before thee 
all the days of thy life: as I was with 
Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not 
fail thee, nor forsake thee." Even the 
things that were impossible he helped them 
to accomplish. Joshua 6 : 1-2, "Now Jeri- 
cho was straitly shut up because of the 
children of Israel: none went out, and 
none came in. And the Lord said unto 
Joshua, See, I have given unto thine hand 
Jericho, and the king thereof, and the 
mighty men of valor. " Even where men 
had failed him he gave them victory. 
Joshua 8: 1-2, "And the Lord said unto 
Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dis- 
mayed: take all the people of war with 
thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have 
given into thy hand the king of Ai, and 
his people, and his city, and his land; 
and thou shalt do to Ai and her king 
as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: 
only the spoil thereof, and the cattle there- 
of, shall ye take for a prey unto your- 
selves: lay thee an ambush for the city 
behind it." Even where the forces were 



230 And Judas Iscariot 

combined against them it made no differ- 
ence. Joshua 10: 8, "And the Lord said 
unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have 
delivered them into thine hand; there 
shall not a man of them stand before 
thee/' So it is with us. God has promised 
to deliver us, and over our sinful nature, 
the atmosphere of the world, sins en- 
couraged and sins committed, we may 
expect a complete victory. Everything 
is at man's disposal if only God is with 
him. In connection with the children of 
Israel even the day was made longer that 
they might fight their battles. Joshua 10: 
12-14, "Then spake Joshua to the Lord 
in the day when the Lord delivered up 
the Amorites before the children of Israel, 
and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, 
stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, 
Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the 
sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until 
the people had avenged themselves upon 
their enemies. Is not this written in the 
book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in 
the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go- 



Five Kings in a Cave 231 

down about a whole day. And there was 
no day like that before it, or after it, that 
the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a 
man: for the Lord fought for Israel." 
The weak w r ere made strong that the 
enemy might not triumph over them. "If 
God be for us who can be against us?" 
In this struggle with the Amorites Israel 
won the day. 

in 

The victory of the Israelites over the 
Amorites was like the general deliverance 
which God has given us from the power 
of sin, but there are certain sins which 
may pursue us, and from these w T e ought to 
be set free. When the children of Israel 
started from Egypt and had passed 
through the Red Sea certain of the Egyp- 
tians started after them, the waters of the 
Sea came together and they were put to 
death. The next day the Israelites camped 
upon the shore and they could easily go 
back. Doubtless more than one could say 
as he turned over the body of a dead man 



232 And Judas Iscariot 

to see his face, "Why, this is my old tax 
master who used to beat me. He will never 
have power over me again." Is such a 
deliverance as this from individual sins 
possible ? I think it is. I can think of five 
sins which stand in the way of men and 
which may be likened to the five kings 
shut up in the cave. 

First: Sinful imagination or secret 
sins. I doubt not but that almost every 
one whose eyes may light upon this sen- 
tence has been guilty at this point. He 
may have said again and again, "I will 
never do this thing again," and he has put 
the king into the cave and rolled the stone 
against the door. 

Second: Impurity. It may be that 
some one who reads this sentence will 
plead guilty at this point, and he may have 
said, "This sin which is now my defeat 
began with only a suggestion of evil which I 
encouraged; but I will never be guilty 
again," and he puts the sin into the cave 
and rolls the stone against the door. 

Third : Intemperance, not simply in the 



Five Kings in a Cave 233 

matter of drinking strong drink, but it 
may be intemperance in the matter of dress, 
or eating, or pleasure; in other words, it is 
the lack of self-control. This has been the 
defeat of more men than one, and as you 
stop and think you say, "I will never 
lose control of myself again," and you put 
the sin within the cave and roll the stone 
against the door. 

Fourth : Dishonesty; not simply in what 
you do but in what you say, for one 
may be dishonest in speech as well as in 
appropriating that which does not belong 
to him. If you should be condemned just 
here and have determined never to fail 
again at this point, by an act of your will 
you consign this king to the cave and close 
up the entrance. 

Five: Unbelief, which is the greatest 
sin of all and is the last and greatest sin to 
be put into the cave. As a result of such 
an action there may be temporary relief, 
but not permanent, for the kings may 
break away from the cave and organize 
their forces against you once more and you 



234 And Judas Iscariot 

go down. Here comes in the power of the 
text. Bring the kings out, every one of 
them, and put your feet upon their necks 
and stand in all your right and dignity as 
Christian men, and expect deliverance 
not so much because of what you are but 
because of the fact that from the days of 
the first sin it has been said, "The seed 
of the woman shall bruise the serpent's 
head." 

Near Toledo, Ohio, there used to live 
an old doctor noted for his infidelity. He 
was violent in his opposition to the 
church. One day he called Robert In- 
gersoll to the town where he lived and paid 
him two hundred dollars, that he might by 
means of his lecture break up the revival 
meeting. Everybody was afraid of him. 
He heard of an old preacher back in the 
country who was a stranger to the schools 
but not a stranger to God, and he asked 
his friends to make it possible for him to 
meet him. Finally they met, and the 
infidel with a sneer said, "So you believe 
the Bible, do you?" and he said, "Yes, 



Five Kings in a Cave 235 

sir; do you?" "And you believe in God, 
do you? 55 and he said, "Yes, sir." "Well, 
I want you to understand that I am an 
infidel, and believe none of these things." 
The old minister looked at him and said 
simply, "Well, is that anything to be 
proud of?" and it was an arrow that went 
straight through the unbeliever. He went 
back to his office and began to think it 
over. "Anything to be proud of," he said, 
and he finally realized that he was not in a 
favorable position. Then he thought of 
an old Christian he knew and said, "If 
I could be such a Christian as that I 
would come to Christ." He went to tell 
the minister, and the minister said to him, 
"Get down on your knees and tell God 
so," and he began to tell him, then broke 
down and sobbed out his confession of 
sin. His cry for deliverance was heard, 
and he rose up a free man in Christ Jesus. 
From that day till this he has been freed 
from every one of his sins, is preaching the 
Gospel and counts it his highest joy to 
contribute in every possible way to the 



236 And Judas Iscariot 

enlargement of the bounds of the King- 
dom of God. So there is deliverance from 
every form of sin if we will but move in 
God's way. 



DEFINITENESS OF PURPOSE IN 
CHRISTIAN WORK 

Text: "Salute no man by the way." — Luke 10: 4. 

Luke is the only one of the Evangelists 
giving us the account of the sending out 
of the seventy. The others tell us that 
Christ called certain men unto him and 
commissioned them to tell his story; but 
in this instance after Jesus had said, 
"Foxes have holes, and birds of the air 
have nests, but the Son of man hath not 
where to lay his head/' he calls the seventy 
and sends them forth prepared to endure 
any sacrifice or suffer any affliction if only 
they may do his will. And when he had 
said unto another, "Follow me," but he 
answered, "Suffer me first to go and bury 
my father/' Jesus said unto him (Luke 
9: 60-62), "Let the dead bury their dead; 
but go thou and preach the kingdom of 
God. And another also said, Lord, I 
will follow thee; but let me first go bid 

237 



238 And Judas Iscariot 

them farewell which are at home at my 
house. And Jesus said unto him, No 
man, having put his hand to the plough, 
and looking back, is fit for the kingdom 
of God." From this expression of the 
Master we quite understand that no other 
service, however important it may seem to 
us, is to come between us and our devotion 
to him. And in the expression concerning 
the man having put his hand to the plow 
and looking back we have one of the 
strongest illustrations that Jesus ever used. 
He does not say that if any one puts his 
hand to the plow and turns back to some 
other form of service he is not fit for the 
Kingdom of God, but what he says is this : 
If any man has his hands to the plow and 
simply looks back he is not fit for the 
Kingdom; and this for two reasons: 

First: Because no man could plow as 
he ought to unless he would keep his eyes 
straight ahead of him, and 

Second : No man could plow if he has 
his mind fixed upon something else. Jesus 
wants his disciples to know that his work 



Definiteness of Purpose 239 

is the important work, that nothing can 
surpass it. Not only is it wrong for us to 
turn away from him to any other service 
but it is a sin even to take our eyes off of 
him to gaze upon anything else. Under 
such sharp teaching as this he sends forth 
the seventy. 

Let it be noted, first, that he sent them 
forth two by two. Perhaps one was sent 
because he was strong in the opposite 
direction from his fellow laborer. Who 
knows but one could speak and the other 
could sing ? Certainly one was the comple- 
ment of the other. And they went forth 
with burning hearts to give the message 
of Jesus. That illustration in the New 
Testament where four men brought the 
sick man to Jesus is along the same line. 
Two men might have failed utterly, three 
men would have found it difficult service, 
for four men it was easy. 

I once made my way into the office of 
a doctor to ask him to come to Christ. 
The meetings were in progress in the 
church and I thought he was interested. 



240 And Judas Iscariot 

He received me kindly, but firmly declined 
even to talk of Christ and I left him, utterly 
discouraged. The next night the man 
gave his heart to Christ, and for this 
reason, I believe. We had made him in a 
little company of church officers a subject 
of prayer, and you cannot pray earnestly 
for one for any length of time without 
speaking to him concerning his soul's 
salvation. Without having had a con- 
ference four men determined to see the 
doctor, and they all called upon him 
within two hours of time. When the first 
came he laughed at him; when the sec- 
ond came his prominence in the business 
world at least commanded the doctor's 
respect; when the third came, having 
driven four miles in from the country, he 
began to be interested ; and with the com- 
ing of the fourth there was awakened in 
him a deep conviction. He closed his 
office, went to his home and before the 
evening hour of service came had accepted 
Christ. 

We have practically the same commis- 



Definiteness of Purpose 241 

sion as the seventy. "As the Father hath 
sent me even so send I you/' said Jesus to 
us. These conditions are as true to-day 
as in those days in the work of the seventy. 
The harvest is great. There possibly 
never has been a time when more people 
are absenting themselves from the church 
than at the present time. These men and 
women are fit subjects for the Gospel. 
The seventy went as the messengers of 
peace, so may we go. There are troubled 
hearts all about us, there are those who are 
in despair, men and women who are say- 
ing, "Peace, peace," when there is no 
peace, while ours is the very message of 
peace. Jesus said to them, "Carry neither 
purse nor scrip nor shoes," for their de- 
pendence was upon him. So must it be 
to-day. Not upon method nor upon skill 
must we depend, nor upon the schemes 
of men, however successful they may have 
been in the past, but upon him. In those 
days the men were sick and troubled, in 
these days they are dead in sins and as his 
messengers we carry the message of love. 



242 And Judas Iscariot 



This expression of the text meant very 
much to the Oriental, for as a matter of 
fact the salutation of the Eastern people 
frequently took a half an hour of time, 
and sometimes an hour would be con- 
sumed. They touched their turbans, fell 
upon their knees, saluted one another with 
a holy kiss, talked together concerning 
their own interests. These things were a 
part of the salutation. Jesus says to the 
seventy, " Salute no man as you go." They 
were not bidden to be impolite — this is 
farthest from the spirit of the Christian — 
yet they were commissioned to be about 
the king's business and the king's busi- 
ness required haste. 

The idea of the text is that there must 
be definiteness of purpose in Christian 
work. When Elisha kept his eyes fixed 
upon Elijah there came to him as the 
result the mantle of Elijah and he was 
clothed with power. When Gehazi fol- 
lowed Elisha's command and as he went 



Definiteness of Purpose 243 

to the home of the Shunammite saluted 
no one he became the forerunner of life 
to the child. And when Paul said, "This 
one thing I do/ 5 and nothing could 
swerve him from his path of duty, he 
became the mightiest preacher in the 
world's history since Christ. But let it 
not be thought for a moment that we are 
advocating a gloomy religion; far from it. 

I like the story of the little girl who 
went one day into her grandfather's room 
to ask him to read to her and found him 
asleep with his head upon the back of the 
chair, his Bible upon his knees and the 
sunlight coming through the window at 
the proper angle to cast about him a halo 
of glory, and she ran to her mother say- 
ing, "I have been in grandpa's room and 
I have seen God." If as a Christian the 
people of the world can have any thought 
other than this, that we at times at least 
remind them of Christ, something is wrong 
with our Christian experience. 

There were two sides to the experience 
of Jesus . In one we see him at the wedding 



244 And Judas Iscariot 

rejoicing with those that did rejoice, mak- 
ing wine out of w^ater and contributing to 
the happiness of all those who w^ere 
present. In the other instance we see him 
upon the mountain side and crying out, 
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!'' with an 
almost breaking heart. 

When Charles G. Finney was in Utica 
there came down to see him a woman who 
was concerned for the town in which she 
lived. She returned to her home and 
through days and nights found it im- 
possible either to eat or to sleep because 
she realized the lost condition of those 
about her. At last when she was so weak 
that she could not pray, she had rest only 
when those about her prayed for her. 
When Mr. Finney reached that town one 
of the greatest revivals in his history as 
an evangelist was the result. 

I was one day engaged w r ith other pas- 
tors in an eastern city in a Gospel cam- 
paign. The ministers were preaching in 
turn each day and when it came my time 
to preach I could find in all the audience 



Definiteness of Purpose 245 

scarcely one of my people. Up to that 
day the interest had been remarkable, but 
somehow from that day on, although 
people had been converted by the hun- 
dred, there was no perceptible spiritual 
impression. When the meetings had 
closed one of the prominent society lead- 
ers of my church came to explain to me 
why she was away from the service and 
she said, "I gave my afternoon recep- 
tion and the people of our church were 
there." When I told her that I felt that 
as a result of that afternoon reception our 
own church had lost a blessing she seemed 
utterly amazed; and yet to this day I am 
firmly persuaded that hundreds of people 
might have come to Christ if we had not 
in that day grieved the Spirit. 

ii 

The text means that those of us who 
are Christians shall show by our very 
faces that we are on the king's business 
and that it is solemn business. 

One day a man knocked at the door of 



246 And Judas Iscariot 

my study, was admitted, sat down on the 
couch in the room and began to sob. He 
did not need to tell me why he had come. 
I knew, but finally when he sobbed it out 
this was his message: "I have come to 
ask you to bury my wife, and to ask if 
you will not go with me to comfort the 
children, for they are heartbroken." I 
knew by the very look of his face that he 
had lost a loved one. Do you think for a 
moment that those who gaze at us would 
imagine that we had the least conviction 
that people away from Christ were lost? 
I am sure they would not. 

The text also means that we shall be 
desperately in earnest. A father and his 
boy heard a minister preach a sermon on 
the judgment and as they went to their 
home the father said, "My boy, it was a 
great sermon and you must think about 
it." And the boy did. He made his way 
to his room and threw himself on his bed 
only to hear his father downstairs laugh- 
ing and singing; and he said to himself, 
"It is not true, for if mv father believed 



Definiteness of Purpose 247 

I was in danger of the judgment he could 
not laugh and he would not sing." That 
day was the turning point in the boy's life. 
He became a man of renown but never a 
believer in Jesus Christ as we accept him. 
The text also indicates how we should 
pray, with an eye single to his glory but 
with a purpose that cannot be shaken. 
Pray as the Shunammite prayed, pray as 
the woman besought the unjust judge; 
such prayer brings victory. 

in 

Did you ever realize that you were 
standing in the way of the conversion of 
your friends? How about your living? 
If your testimony rings anything else than 
true to Christ you are a stumbling block 
in the way of some one. 

How about your testimony? In the 
meetings to which I referred there came 
a young woman one day evidently greatly 
moved. First one pastor would speak to 
her and then another, and finally I was 
given the privilege. For a long time I 



248 And Judas Iscariot 

could not understand her words for her 
sobs and then she said, "I am a Chris- 
tian, a member of one of the churches 
in this movement. I have been engaged 
to a young man for the last three years. 
He was not a Christian. Three weeks 
ago he was taken ill and a week ago he 
died. In all the time that I knew him I 
never spoke to him about Christ. I do 
not know that he even knew that I was a 
Christian, and now/ 5 she said, with a heart 
which seemed to be literally crushed, "he 
has gone and I never warned him." And the 
text means that no one could come within 
the reach of our influence without having 
at least a suggestion made by ourselves to 
them that we are the followers of Christ 
and that we long to have them know him 
who means so much to us. 



THE MORNING BREAKETH 

Text: "Watchman, what of the night? The 
watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the 
nigW 9 — Isaiah 21: 11-12. 

It is very interesting to note that, 
whether we study the Old Testament or 
the New, nights are always associated 
with God's mornings. In other words, 
he does not leave us in despair without 
sending to us his messengers of hope and 
cheer. 

The Prophet Isaiah in this particular 
part of his prophecy seems to be almost 
broken-hearted because of the sin of the 
people. As one of the Scotch preachers 
has put it, he has practically sobbed him- 
self to sleep. A great shadow has fallen 
upon the people of God and he is in 
despair because of it. They have sown 
to the wind and now they are reaping the 
whirlwind, a result which is inevitable. 
They are away from Zion with its temple, 



250 And Judas Iscariot 

and are deprived of the view of those 
mountains which are round about Jerusa- 
lem and to this day are clad with vines 
and olive trees. They are in captivity and 
are the abject slaves of the enemies of 
God. Isaiah's heart is well-nigh crushed, 
but in the midst of the despair he has a 
vision of the chariots coming and hears a 
cry which rejoices his soul, "Babylon is 
fallen." It is because of these tidings that 
he cries out in the words of the text. 

What a night they had had of it ! They 
had been in darkness that was ever in- 
creasing, and the song of thanksgiving 
which used to fill their souls because of 
the nearness of Jefiovah had entirely 
departed from them. 

The figure of the watchman is often 
used in the Bible, as for example when he 
stands upon the city walls and is told that 
if he sounds the trumpet telling of the 
approach of the enemy and the people 
hear and do not take warning their blood 
is upon their own heads, while if he fails 
to sound the trumpet and the people are 



The Morning Breaketh 251 

cut off, their blood is required at the 
watchman's hand. And again in the first 
chapter of Zechariah the eighth to the 
eleventh verses, "I saw by night, and be- 
hold a man riding upon a red horse, and 
he stood among the myrtle trees that 
were in the bottom ; and behind him were 
there red horses, speckled and white. 
Then said I, O my Lord, what are these? 
And the angel that talked with me said 
unto me, I will shew thee what these be. 
And the man that stood among the myrtle 
trees answered and said, These are they 
whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and 
fro through the earth. And they an- 
swered the angel of the Lord that stood 
among the myrtle trees, and said, We 
have walked to and fro through the earth, 
and behold all the earth sitteth still and 
is at rest." For here the man standing 
in the midst of the myrtle trees is him of 
whom the prophets did speak, while the 
messengers are those who bring him tid- 
ings of the progress of his kingdom. But 
again where David comes to the watch 



252 And Judas Iscariot 

tower and sees the two messengers run- 
ning, the second one bringing him tidings 
of the death of his son, and from this 
watch tower he staggers back again to 
his room crying out, "O Absalom, my 
son, would God I had died for thee !" 

The poet usually sings of the night as 
a time of beauty. He sings of the moon 
and the stars; but in the Bible night al- 
ways stands for that which is dark, foul, 
loathsome, sinful, cold and deadly. There 
are different nights mentioned in the 
Scripture, for the most part in the Old 
Testament. There was that night in 
Eden when sin blinded the eves of Adam 
and Eve and a great darkness fell round 
about them. There was the night of the 
flood, all because the people had neglected 
God; and there was the night of the 
destroying angel passing over the cities 
of Egypt, all because of the indifference of 
those who knew not God. But even in 
these nights God does not leave his people 
without help, for in Eden we read, "The 
seed of the woman shall bruise the ser- 



The Morning Breaketh 253 

pent's head"; while in the flood behold 
the Ark ; and in the Passover night we see 
the blood of the Paschal lamb sprinkled 
upon the lintels of the door. 

There are different mornings mentioned 
in the Scriptures, and as a rule we find 
them in the New Testament. 

The morning of his birth. 

The morning of his resurrection. 

The morning of his miracle when the 
empty nets are filled and the discouraged 
fishermen are made to rejoice. 

The morning of his return, when, after 
the rising of the morning star, an endless 
day of blessing shall be ushered in. 

It used to be the custom in Scotland, 
especially in Aberdeen, for the night 
watchman of the city guard as he paced 
the streets to cry aloud, "Twelve o'clock 
and the night is dark; one o'clock and 
the storm is heavy/' and the restless 
sleeper would toss upon his pillow and 
listen for the tidings of the morning hour, 
"Two o'clock and the morning is starry." 
It is in this spirit that we listen to-day 



254 And Judas Iscariot 

to the cry of the watchman when he 
declares, "The morning cometh and also 
the night." 

i 

We are in a sense in the night in these 
days, even though we are Christians. 

First: Because of the existence of sin. 
It is everywhere, in the heart as a mighty 
principle of evil pulling us down as the 
law of gravitation pulls material sub- 
stances toward the earth's center. In the 
life as shown by our habits and practices, 
for these are the fruits of sin. In the very 
air we breathe sin is manifest, and sin has 
brought the night. „ 

Second: I sometimes think that the 
darkness is increasing because as min- 
isters we fail to preach concerning sin. 
We speak of it as an error or a mistake; 
we talk about the devil and call him his 
Satanic majesty; we preach about hell 
and call it the lost world, while it is true 
that in the olden days when men trem- 
bled under the word of the preacher the 
man of God spoke of the devil and hell 



The Morning Breaketh 255 

and sin in all their awfulness. But the 
morning cometh, for while it is true that 
sin is in the world and it has gripped many 
of us, yet because of Christ's death upon 
the cross we are free from the penalty of 
sin; we may be free from the power 
of sin, for the law of the spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus sets us free from the law of 
sin and death; we may be free from the 
practice of sin, for Christ is the secret of 
our deliverance. But the text tells us 
that while the morning cometh the night 
also appears. And so for those of us whose 
lives have been such a struggle we cry, 
"Is there no deliverance?" and I answer, 
yes, we shall one day be free from the 
presence of sin; and that will be at his 
return when we shall see him and be like 
him, and the new day w^hich is never to 
close shall be upon us. 

Third : We are in the night because of 
the existence of sorrow. Next to sin this 
is the greatest fact in the world, for men 
are born unto trouble as the sparks fly 
upward. And somehow the morning and 



256 And Judas Iscariot 

the night as they are fastened together in 
this text present to us the story of our 
lives, for we are first in the morning when 
everything seems peaceful, and almost 
immediately in the night when we are 
really in despair. 

I journeyed from Naples to Rome over 
a fine piece of railway and found myself 
now in the darkness of a tunnel and 
almost immediately rushing out onto a 
fertile plain. That railroad is the story 
of many a life. But "Is there no deliver- 
ance that is complete?" and I answer, 
yes, there is a time coming when there 
shall be no sea and no tears and no night, 
for the former things are passed away. 

Fourth: We are in the night because 
of mystery. Life is full of questions. 
" Why must I have this trial or pain or 
trouble?" So many of us are asking these 
questions, and there is really no answer, 
at least none for the present. And yet God 
has not deceived us, for he has said, 
"What I do thou knowest not now but 
thou shalt know hereafter." He tells us 



The Morning Breaketh 257 

that when we see him we shall know, but 
also declares that no one can see his face 
and live; and then, said the sainted Augus- 
tine, '"Let me die that I may see him." 
It is true that we shall go on from light 
into darkness, from morning into the 
night, but is there no final deliverance? 
And I answer, yes, when we see him and 
become like him we shall know as we are 
known. Let us wait and believe until 
that dav. 

Have you ever seen a perfect rainbow — 
that is, a rainbow in a perfect circle? I 
never have. The most perfect one I have 
ever seen was on the plains of Jericho, but 
it was a half circle. However, in the Reve- 
lation we are told that in that day there 
shall be a rainbow round about the throne, 
when half circles shall be made whole and 
half things shall be made complete; that 
is the morning for which we long. 

n 

But there is another suggestion, "the 
morning cometh and also the night." 
There is the thought of the transition from 



258 And Judas Iscariot 

the one to the other. We certainly have 
been in the night so far as our living is 
concerned and our working, but now I 
feel sure there is coming a change and 
we are living in a critical time. May God 
help us to be faithful. 

All truth is like a cycle and at differ- 
ent points in the circumference there are 
truths which must be especially empha- 
sized. 

The late A. J. Gordon once preached a 
sermon on the "Recurrence of Doctrine/ 5 
in which he stated that while in one day 
justification by faith was the prominent 
truth for the church, in another sanctifi- 
cation was prominent, in still another the 
return of the Lord, and in still another 
the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. All this 
I firmly believe and it only proves to me 
that the prominent truth for to-day is 
every man for his neighbor, every friend 
for his friend, every parent for his child, 
the individual seeking the individual for 
Christ. God is calling us to action; let 
us not fail. 



The Morning Breaketh 259 

I have a friend who used to use an 
illustration of a sea captain, his first 
mate and his wife wrecked upon a rocky 
shore, huddled together upon a rock out 
from the shore but too far for them to 
escape by throwing themselves into the 
waves. The life-line is shot out to them 
and the captain puts it round his first 
mate and bids him jump and he is drawn 
to the shore in safety. Then he put the 
cord around the waist of his wife, but the 
current is running in such a way that she 
must spring at just the proper second or 
she will be thrown back against the rocks 
and be killed. And he shouts to her, 
"Spring!" but she waited to kiss him 
and waited too long, sprang into the sea 
and was thrown back against the rock 
and drawn shorew T ard lifeless. Whether 
that story is true or not I cannot say, but 
it is an illustration of the present day 
to me. God is saying, "Now is the day 
of opportunity." May he pity us if we 
fail! 



260 And Judas Iscariot 



in 

While all that has been said is true 
concerning the morning of the Eternal 
Dav, in another sense it is true that al- 
ready a brighter day is breaking. 

First: A better day for Bible study. 
This old Book which people have feared 
was going to pass away is better to-day 
than ever. It is the object of deeper affec- 
tion, and there is no question but that 
more people are believing in it to-day as 
the inspired Word of God than for years ; 
and all because they have tested it and 
it has stood the test. 

Second: A better day of prayer is 
dawning. Fifty thousand people in 
Great Britain are banded together to 
pray and to pray until the blessing comes 
if that be for years. Oh, that God would 
teach us to pray ! We do not half under- 
stand what it means to ask God for 
blessings. 

A story of prayer which would seem 
impossible if I did not know it to be true, 



The Morning Breaketh 261 

for I have friends who have been in the 
town where it occurred and have met the 
descendants of the old sea captain, is 
the story of the captain who took his 
boy and others to fish and in the midst 
of the hurricane the boy was washed over 
board. Broken-hearted, he returned to 
the shore and the fisher wife, as was her 
custom, came down to meet them, only to 
sob her wav back to her home because 
her boy was gone. They spent the 
night in the kirk in prayer, when the 
minister said, "Why not ask God to re- 
store his body?" and they did. They put 
out to sea and journeyed sixty miles until 
he told them to stop and when they let 
over the grappling hooks they knew by 
the very tug of the rope that they had his 
body. They bore it back again to the 
broken-hearted captain and his wife, who 
had all the time been waiting in the kirk in 
prayer. May God teach us how to pray ! 
A brighter day is dawning, and while it 
may be that some of us cannot see it, 
while there may be skeptics who say it is 



262 And Judas Iscariot 

not exactly true, yet I know from what I 
have seen myself that the darkness is 
passing away. 

In June, 1897, the steamer Catalonia 
at ten o'clock at night was found to be on 
fire. One of my friends has told me that 
he paced the deck and considered himself 
lost because the flames were burning 
fiercely. Finally the fire was under con- 
trol and the people sang, "Praise God 
from whom all blessings flow. 55 Telling 
me of the lessons that he learned on this 
awful journey, he said: "That night at 
twelve o'clock, when the pumps were 
being forced and the clouds of smoke 
were taking on new dimensions and we 
were wondering what the morning would 
bring us, the man on the bridge shouted, 
as he had at each midnight of the trip, 
' Eight bells, all's well!'" Had the man 
down in a stateroom watching by the 
side of his sick wife heard the words, he 
might have said, "It's a falsehood," but 
that man's vision was restricted by the 
narrow walls of his stateroom. Had the 



The Morning Breaketh 263 

mother and daughter, sitting in the cabin, 
with their arms about each other, won- 
dering why they had been allowed to sail 
on the Catalonia and leave their loved 
ones behind, heard it, they might have 
said, "The man is beside himself," but 
they could not see beyond the cabin. 
Had the lonely traveler who stood near 
the hatchway given it a thought he might 
have said, "It's a lie," but he could not 
see through the clouds of smoke at which 
he stared silently. But the vision of the 
watch swept the horizon, and there was 
no obstruction in the ship's path. He 
knew that each revolution of the Catalo- 
nia's machinery pushed the ship on her way 
to Queenstown. He had a right to say it. 
I somehow seem to hear the sound of 
the goings in the tops of the trees and 
have evidence that God is coming to his 
church with blessing. It is true there is 
in some quarters indifference, in many 
places worldliness, but I can see no insur- 
mountable barrier in the way of the pro- 
gress of the Kingdom of God. 



AN OBSCURED VISION 

(Preached at the opening of the Winona Lake Bible 
Conference.) 

Text: "Where there is no vision, the people 
perish."— Proverbs 29: 18. 

It is not altogether an easy matter to 
secure a text for such an occasion as this ; 
not because the texts are so few in num- 
ber but rather because they are so many, 
for one has only to turn over the pages of 
the Bible in the most casual way to find 
them facing him at every reading. 

Feeling the need of advice for such a 
time as this, I asked a number of my 
friends who knew me intimately and 
knew the occasion which was before me 
to suggest what in their minds would be 
an appropriate Scripture, and in their 
suggestions I have had the most singular 
indication of the leading of Providence. 

One said, "Use Hosea 5: 4, where God 

265 



266 And Judas Iscariot 

in speaking concerning his people Israel 
says, 'They will not frame their doings/ ' 
which means that his people would not 
set before themselves the way in which 
they were going; or it might mean that 
they would not set up a plan for their 
lives which would be according to his 
will and which he might bring on to 
completion. 

Another said, "Use Genesis 26:18/' 
where we are told that Isaac digged again 
the wells of his father Abraham. This 
is a suggestive incident and has in it a 
message for to-day, for if there is one 
thing needed more than another it is that 
the old wells at which our fathers drank 
and were refreshed and which, alas! in 
in these modern times have been filled in, 
at least to a certain extent, should be 
opened and men be summoned once again 
to drink of their living waters. 

Another said, "Use Jeremiah 6:16, 
'Ask for the old paths ;'" for as a matter 
of fact we cannot improve upon the ways 
in which our fathers walked, so far as the 



An Obscured Vision 267 

revelation of God is concerned or the 
doing of his will. 

Still another suggested that I should 
use Isaiah 62:10, "Gather out the stones, 
lift up a standard for the people," in 
which the description is of a great prince 
coming and all hindrances should be re- 
moved that the journey might be robbed 
of its difficulties and dangers. 

You will notice if you have watched 
the suggestions of these Christian workers 
that the texts are practically all the same, 
and then when I tell you that the line of 
thought they have indicated was the very 
line which God suggested to me weeks 
and months before the conference you 
will be impressed as I have been that this 
subject is not of my own choosing, and 
therefore must be a message from God. 
Neither is the text one of my own choos- 
ing, for God pressed it in upon me again 
and again and from it I was afraid to 
turn away. 

I like the text because it is in the book 
of Proverbs. This book is not simply a 



268 And Judas Iscariot 

collection of wise sayings and affectionate 
exhortations, for you will remember that 
the Proverbs were put down after the 
event and not before its occurrence. This 
being true, Proverbs presents an estab- 
lished fact: here we find what the wise 
men in all the ages have learned to be 
truth. If they speak of sin and its pen- 
alty they do it in the light of their own 
experience; if they say the fear of the 
Lord is the beginning of knowledge they 
mean that they have tried other sources 
of wisdom and all have failed but this. 
All this makes the text exceedingly valu- 
able, for the wise men of other days must 
have tried to walk without the vision and 
not only failed themselves but have set 
the people astray. 

By a vision we do not mean simply an 
imagination or dream which might come 
to some person who had little practical 
understanding of the ways of life, but we 
mean an appreciation of God's thought 
and approximate understanding of his 
plan and a desire to know his will. 



An Obscured Vision 269 

The word "perish/ 5 does not mean 
destruction, but rather the idea is to "run 
wild"; so the literal rendering of the text 
is, "Where there is no revelation the 
people run wild" — that is to say, if God is 
put out of thought every man is a law unto 
himself and therefore is dangerous to the 
community in which he lives. He is like 
a ship sailing for a harbor without chart 
or compass and with utter indifference 
to the pole star. Whatever your impres- 
sions, convictions or purposes, they should 
always be squared by reverent, careful 
and profound study of God's will and 
word. 

The first sentence of the Bible is this, 
"In the beginning God," and it must be 
the first sentence of every plan and of 
every purpose of the individual and the 
community or there is danger ahead. 

I 

There ought never to be an age with- 
out a vision, indeed without repeated 
visions. If there should be such a time 



270 And Judas Iscariot 

it might be a time of prosperity, but inev- 
itably souls would be neglected. There 
ought not to be an individual without a 
vision. If there should be such an one 
he is missing the best of his life. If there 
be no vision the horizon of man may be 
bounded by his office, his store, his 
home, his own city or his native land, 
while as a matter of fact this is only a 
part of what God meant him to do and 
to be. God's plans are from everlasting 
to everlasting. The wonderful work he 
is doing in this world is only a part of the 
plan, for in the ages to come he expects 
to show forth the manysidedness of his 
grace and reveal to us the depth of his 
love to us in Christ. 

John McNeill's friend had an eagle 
which he had reared in the farm yard 
with the ordinary fowl that lived there. 
This friend sold his property and deter- 
mined to move to another part of Scot- 
land. He could dispose of his horses and 
sell his chickens but no one wanted the 
eagle. What should he do with it? He 



An Obscured Vision 271 

determined to teach it to fly, and threw it 
up in the air only to have it come down 
with a thud upon the ground. Then he 
lifted it and placed it upon the barn yard 
fence and was holding it for a moment 
when suddenly the eagle lifted its eyes and 
caught a glimpse of the sun. It stretched 
forth its head as far as it could, threw out 
one wing, then another, and with a scream 
and a bound was away flying upward 
until it was lost in the face of the sun. 
This is what we are needing to-day— 
namely, to lift up our eyes and see God's 
plan and try to understand his purposes. 
The eagle so long had held its head down 
that it had lost the vision of the sun; the 
first glimpse of it set him free. What we 
mean by a vision, therefore, is an appreci- 
ation of God's purposes and plans and a 
hearty yielding to him for service in the 
accomplishment of the same. 

Joseph Cook when he was making a 
plea for China's millions said one day, 
"Put your ear down to the ground and 
listen and you will hear the tramp, tramp, 



272 And Judas Iscariot 

tramp of four hundred millions of weary 
feet/' I have to say this morning, Lift up 
your eyes and look, open your ears and 
listen and you will both see and hear that 
God has a great plan for us which he will 
reveal to all if only we will permit him to 
do so. In proportion as a people loses 
its faith in a revelation from God it falls 
into decay. The student of history re- 
calls vividly the story of the French Revo- 
lution, which is a proof of this statement. 
God has always spoken concerning his 
plans and it has been to living men and 
women that he has granted visions. He 
came to Abraham and he saw Christ's 
day and was glad : he visited Moses and 
he endured as seeing him who is invisible : 
he was lifted up before Isaiah and he 
first confessed his sin and shame, then 
cried, "Here am I, send me." He granted 
Saul of Tarsus a vision of himself as he 
approached Damascus until he cried, 
"Who art thou?" and then began to walk 
in fellowship with him until like the hero 
that he was he mounted from the Eternal 



An Obscured Vision 273 

City to that City which has foundations 
whose Builder and Maker is God. He 
stood before John as in apocalyptic vision 
he saw him with his head and his hair, 
white like wool, as white as snow and his 
eyes as a flame of fire. 

But if you should say, "Oh, yes, but 
this is in Bible times and we are living in 
a different age/' then hear me when I say 
that he has come to living men and 
women in our own day with a revelation 
of his will. He spoke to Zinzendorf and 
we have a mighty work among the Mora- 
vians. He revealed himself to the Wes- 
leys and we have the mighty movement 
of Methodism. He talked with Edwards 
and we have the great Revival of New 
England. He revealed himself to Finney 
and we have the great manifestation of 
power in the state of New York. He 
walked and talked with Moodv and we 
have the greatest evangelistic work of his 
day and generation with Moody as his 
instrument. These were all men with 
visions. He has come to great mission- 



274 And Judas Iscariot 

aries like Paton who saw the New Heb- 
rides Islands evangelized while yet they 
sat in darkness, because he saw God. He 
has spoken to our own Fulton in China, 
who writes that the people are flocking to 
Christ. To him it is no surprise, for he 
knew that they would do it while others 
were still skeptical. He knew it because 
he knew God. 

Let us remember that, however true it 
may be that God speaks in conscience, 
providence, through the church and by 
the preaching of his Word, his supreme 
revelation is in his own Word. This Book 
contains the revealed will of God and this 
Book is his Word. 



ii 

Why are we not having revelations to- 
day as we know they have been given at 
other times? Why is not some one in our 
own land especially working out some of 
the great plans and purposes of God? 
The question is easily answered. The 



An Obscured Vision 275 

difficulty is not with God. He is the 
same forever. We alone must be at fault. 
Without any spirit of harsh criticism and 
with a prayer to God that he will make my 
spirit as he would have it, permit me to 
say that I fear the visions are not being 
given to us for the following reasons : 

First : Because of the disrespect shown 
to his Son. We have come to a time when 
men seek to limit his knowledge, and 
occasionally they are saying that he did 
not know concerning the things of which 
he spake. Such blasphemy makes us 
shudder. There is a disposition to mis- 
interpret his teaching. They did it in 
Paul's day and he spoke by inspiration 
when he said, "If any man present an- 
other gospel than that which I have pre- 
sented let him be accursed." There is a 
disposition to rob him of his deity. "Is 
Jesus divine?" was the question asked not 
long ago of one who called himself a 
minister, and he answered, "Yes, in the 
sense that Buddha is divine or Confucius 
is divine." Our faces grow white with 



276 And Judas Iscariot 

fear as we listen to such blasphemous 
statements in such an age as this. This 
helps to overcast the sky and God can 
hardly trust us with a vision in such an 
atmosphere. 

Second: An irreverent criticism of the 
Word of God. That there is a reverent 
criticism all will allow, and that many who 
are walking these paths are devout be- 
lievers in God and in his word I would 
like to be among the first to acknowledge. 
There are three kinds of critics to-day. 
First: Those who honestly want the best 
and who are studying carefully and 
prayerfully to know ^the truth. Second: 
Those who ape scholarship. Third: 
Those whose lives may not be right, and 
for them if any part of the Bible could be 
cut away they would be less condemned. 
We need not fear, however; our Bible is 
not in danger, for this is largely a question 
of scholarship. Some of you who listen 
to me may not class yourselves as scholars. 
I certainly do not put myself in that com- 
pany, but one thing I know : I have seen 



An Obscured Vision 277 

the Bible work as no other book has ever 
worked, and I have seen Jesus Christ save 
miraculously multitudes of poor lost sin- 
ners. I am not disturbed for the future; 
there are as great scholars as the world 
has ever known who still hold to your 
mother's Bible and who have lost not 
one whit of confidence in it. 

Thomas Newberry, a devout English 
student, spent fifty years in study to give 
the world his Newberry Bible. He said, 
"I accept the theory of the plenary in- 
spiration of the Scriptures. I have studied 
every 'jot and tittle 5 of the Word of God 
and after these fifty years I see no reason 
for changing my position. 55 Scholars 5 
names almost without number could be 
mentioned as believing in the Scriptures 
as the divinely inspired Word of God. 
For myself I would have great assurance 
in standing side by side with Dr. Paton, 
and I would not think of trembling so 
long as our sainted Dr. Moorehead walks 
courageously along life 5 s journey as he 
nears its end with faith in God's Word 



278 And Judas Iscariot 

unshaken, with confidence in God's Son 
constantly growing. This blessed old 
Book has been railed at in all the ages. Men 
have professed to overthrow it, they have 
cut and slashed at it like Jehoiakim of 
old, but it is better than ever to-day. It 
is the Word of God. Heaven and earth 
may pass away but this Word, never. 

Not long ago I attended a conference 
of Christian workers and was told by one 
of them that I could not appreciate the 
Bible except I read it with the thought 
of literary criticism in mind. My friend 
interpreted a portion of the Word of God 
for me in this way and it was beautiful. 
It reminded me of nothing so much as a 
diamond perfectly cut, kissed by the sun- 
light and throwing back its sparkling light 
to me as I gazed upon it. 

Another said that I would never be able 
to understand the Bible until I read it from 
the standpoint of the elocutionist in the 
best use of that expression, and he read 
in my hearing the story of Joseph and his 
brethren and I felt that I myself had 



An Obscured Vision 279 

never read the Bible before and really had 
never heard it read. 

Still another came with his higher criti- 
cism and said that much of the Bible was 
mythical, that the stories I had loved were 
simply allegorical; and I listened to him 
and went back to my Bible to read, only 
to find that you may read it any way, spell 
it out in your youth letter by letter, read 
it through your tears as you reach middle 
life and your heart is aching, hold it 
against your heart when your eyes are 
too dim to read its pages, and it will yield 
to you a sweetness which is actually be- 
yond the power of man to describe. This 
is a wonderful Book and in this Book God 
reveals himself. Handle it irreverently 
and vou will have no vision. 

Third : It seems to me that the church is 
not what she ought to be, and this being 
true the vision is denied. One of my 
friends said the other day that the diffi- 
culty with the church is that she has lost 
her interrogation point. At the day of 
Pentecost people were saying, "What do 



280 And Judas Iscariot 

these things mean?" To-day they never 
think of saying it. I have been told in a 
little pamphlet issued by an English 
writer that the church has lost her possess- 
ive case, which means that somehow she 
has gone on without realizing that the 
risen, glorified Christ is her blessed Lord. 
It is a great thing to say "Jesus" ; infinitely 
greater is it to say "My Jesus." The 
church has lost her imperative mode. 
In days that are past it was possible 
for the church to stand in the presence 
of evil and say, "In the name of Almighty 
God this iniquity must stop." But to-day 
it is not possible. The church has lost 
her present tense. We are constantly look- 
ing for blessings in the future. God's 
promises are all written for the present. 
It is to the church on fire that God grants 
a vision. 

Fourth: Some of the difficulty must 
rest with us as ministers of the Gospel. I 
fear that some of us have lost our message. 
It has loosened its grip upon us, and you 
never can move another man until you 



An Obscured Vision 281 

are first moved yourself by the message 
you would give to him. 

At a great gathering not long ago I 
heard a distinguished Eastern professor 
speaking. The topic of his lecture was 
"My Foster Children/ 5 and these foster 
children were some animals which he had 
had as pets, whose habits he had care- 
fully studied. One was a Gila monster 
from the plains of Arizona, another was 
a horned owl, the third was a rat, and the 
fourth was an opossum. If you can im- 
agine more uninteresting subjects than 
these you are more imaginative than my- 
self, and yet he thrilled me and held three 
thousand people in breathless interest. 
Oh, my brethren, if I believe in Jesus 
Christ as the Son of God and as a Savior 
able not only to save to the uttermost but 
to keep through eternity, and that mes- 
sage grips me, I am a poor preacher if I 
fail with it to grip and move other men. 
I fear we have lost our boldness. I am a 
minister of the glorious Gospel of the 
grace of God and I have a right to de- 



282 And Judas Iscariot 

mand a hearing and to give my message, 
not because of what I am myself — God 
forbid — but because of what my Savior is. 
Some of us have lost our passion for 
souls; we mourn over it, we know that 
when we once had this it was the secret 
of a successful ministry. It is not wrong 
for me to say to you this morning that 
to the minister without a message, to 
the minister who has lost his holy bold- 
ness, to the minister who has anything 
less than a burning passion for souls, 
God cannot give his vision. 

in 

I know that I have your deepest sym- 
pathy in the longing which I now express 
for this great gathering — namely, that 
God would give to us a vision. 

First: As to what the Bible really is. 
One of my friends told me the other day 
of a blind girl who could not read because 
she had been too busy and somehow had 
not thought that she could use the 



An Obscured Vision 283 

raised letters which have been such a 
boon to God's blind children. I am 
told she learned that she might read while 
on these grounds last summer. It was 
made possible later on for her to have a 
teacher and she began to study little 
books until she could read quite fluently. 
One day unknown to her there w T as 
brought into her home a Bible with raised 
letters and without telling what the book 
was it was opened at the fourteenth chapter 
of John and she was bidden to read in it. 
She had no sooner touched the page, 
her fingers enabling her to read, "Let not 
your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, 
believe also in me," than with radiant 
face she exclaimed, "Why this is God's 
Word; the very touch of it is differ- 
ent." I would that we might have this 
vision. 

Second: I wish that w r e might have a 
vision of Christ. He is the chief est among 
ten thousand, and the one altogether 
lovely. He is a mighty Savior and a 
mighty helper. I cannot bring him a bur- 



284 And Judas Iscariot 

den too great, nor talk to him about a 
trial too insignificant. Oh, that we might 
see him as he is ! 

And finally, I wish that we might 
know what service is, for knowing this we 
would be instant in season and out of 
season. Some years ago Fannie Crosby, 
the blind hymn writer, was speaking in 
one of the missions in New York City. 
Suddenly she stopped and said, "I won- 
der if there is not some wandering boy 
in this audience this evening who would 
have the courage to step out from 
this audience and come up and stand 
by my side so that I might put my arms 
around him and kiss him for his mother?" 
There was a hush upon the audience; 
then a boy from the rear seat started and 
came to the platform, and with her arms 
around about him and her lips against his 
cheek for his mother's sake, Fannie Crosby 
said, "Oh, my friends, let us rescue the 
perishing." From this meeting she went 
to her home, and sitting in her room 
wrote : 



An Obscured Vision 285 

" Rescue the perishing, 

Care for the dying, 
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave, 

Weep o'er the erring one, 

Lift up the fallen, 
Tell them of Jesus, the Mighty to save." 

Years afterward she spoke in St. Louis 
at a great meeting and related this inci- 
dent. Before she had finished a man in 
the audience sprang to his feet and said, 
"Miss Crosby, listen to me. I am a pros- 
perous merchant in this city, a husband 
and a father, a Christian and an officer 
in the church. I was that boy around 
whom you threw your arms." Such an 
experience as that is worth a lifetime of 
service. I wish to put myself on record. 
I know that many of you are with me. I 
stand for nothing in these days that would 
in the least obscure men's vision of the 
power of God, or their vision of the glori- 
ous majesty of the Son of God, and I 
count nothing worth while except to do 
that thing which would mean the winning 
of a soul to Jesus Christ. 



286 And Judas Iscariot 

I believe God is giving to some men in 
these days a vision as to what may be 
accomplished if only a mighty work of 
grace should be given to us. He cer- 
tainly is ready to pour out his Spirit upon 
his own people, and it is only necessary 
that we should first of all realize our 
weakness, then understand his power, 
realize that souls are lost and dying and 
then know that he is able to save to the 
uttermost; and above all to realize that 
in all ages he has used human instru- 
ments for the accomplishment of his pur- 
poses, and realizing these things to see 
that our lives are right in his sight, to 
have such a victory for God as the world 
has never seen. For this day w T e hope 
and pray and cry aloud, "O Lord, how 
long, how long? 55 



THE COMPASSION OF JESUS 

Text: "But when he saw the multitudes, he was 
moved with compassion" — Matt. 9:36. 

The keynote of the earthly ministry of 
Jesus Christ was " compassion/' You 
have but to follow him in his journeys by 
day and by night to find the proof of this 
statement. Whether he ministers to the 
sick of the palsy, turns aside to help 
the father whose child is dead, heals the 
woman with the issue of blood, drives 
away the leprosy from the man dead by 
law, stops to open the eyes of the blind 
man by the wayside, helps the beggar or 
wins the member of the Sanhedrim, he 
is always the same. 

If you journey with him in the morn- 
ing on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, or 
at noon rest with him as he sits on the 
well curb of Jacob's well; if you stop 
with him in the evening as he bares his 
side and thrusts forth his hand to the 

287 



288 And Judas Iscariot 

doubting Thomas, or behold him as he 
is roused from his sleep in the boat to 
quiet the storm; if you study him on the 
mountain side at midnight or behold him 
in the garden of Gethsemane when no 
one beholds his agony but the eye of his 
Father — you will learn that he was al- 
ways compassionate. You cannot dis- 
cover him under any circumstances when 
this statement is not true of him. 

This ninth chapter of Matthew is indeed 
remarkable. It can be appreciated only 
when we read the closing part of the eighth 
chapter, for it is here that the people, 
angry because of the destruction of the 
swine, besought him to leave their coun- 
try; and it is here we see him taking his 
departure. Men have since that time 
driven him from their hearts and their 
homes for reasons quite as trifling. It is 
a sad thing to know that any one can 
drive him away if he chooses to do so. 

The chapter is remarkable, however, 
because here we not only read the story 
of the calling of Matthew from his 



The Compassion of Jesus %89 

position of influence, but find more 
specific cases of healing than in most 
other chapters of the New Testament. 
There is the healing of the sick of the 
palsy in the second verse, the significant 
part of which is he was healed when Jesus 
saw their faith; the picture of the father 
whose child was dead and then raised 
by him, in the eighteenth verse and the 
twenty-fifth verse; the account of the wom- 
an with the issue of blood, in the twen- 
tieth verse, and the picture of discourage- 
ment when all earthly physicians had 
failed changed into great joy when the 
virtue of the great physician healed her: 
the account of the dumb man, in the 
thirty-second verse, who was possessed of 
a devil as well; and then in the thirty- 
fifth verse a general statement concerning 
him to the effect that he healed all man- 
ner of diseases. 

The chapter is also remarkable be- 
cause these cases presented to Jesus were 
of the very worst sort. The man with 
the palsy could not come himself, however 



2^0 And Judas Iscariot 

much he wanted to do so, and four men 
were required to bring him; the child 
was dead and so beyond all human help; 
the two blind men were undoubtedly 
beggars and outcasts ; the dumb man was 
possessed of a devil in addition to his 
dumbness ; the group of people who were 
subjects of his healing power had every 
manner of disease, but while the people 
were different and the cases were desper- 
ate, Jesus was always the same. 

There were six specific illustrations of 
healing: three of these came to Jesus for 
themselves, the two blind men and the 
woman ; two others were brought to him, 
the man sick with the palsy and the man 
who was dumb; and for the other case 
the father came and took Jesus to the 
child. In all the general cases Jesus went 
himself to the suffering. 

When all these subjects have been pre- 
sented then comes the text, which is its 
own outline. There is first the picture 
of the multitudes, a great number of peo- 
ple. Then the statement that they had 



The Compassion of Jesus 291 

fainted; literally it is, "they were tired. " 
Then they were described as sheep, the 
only animal known which in its wander- 
ing cannot find its way home of itself. 
And finally it was stated that they had no 
shepherd, the responsibility for their wan- 
dering resting upon others rather than 
upon themselves. This is the outline of 
of this message. 



The picture which Jesus beheld as he 
walked through his own country is re- 
peated to-day on every side of us, and he 
is still moved with compassion because 
of those who are helpless and undone. It 
is true we have done something for him. 
The last census shows that the member, 
ship of the Protestant churches has in- 
creased more rapidly than the population. 
For this we should be thankful. It is also 
true that the church machinery of the 
day is well nigh perfect: the buildings 
and equipment with which we have to do 



292 And Judas Iscariot 

have never been excelled. Yet, counting 
the membership of both the Catholic and 
Protestant churches, there are forty mil- 
lion people to-day in our land who are not 
in the church and who evidently do not 
care for the church. With these people 
there seems to be a growing indifference 
to everything that is spiritual. 

A man in an apartment house in New 
York, when asked the other day to do 
something for a poor family for the sake 
of God, answered blasphemously, "I do 
not care for the opinion of men, I do not 
even care for God himself; I am for 
myself first, last and all the time. 5 ' 
As we walk the streets we ought to be 
impressed with the fact that men on 
every side of us are lost in the proportion 
of one to four. As we sit in a car we ought 
to be impressed with the fact that one in 
four have rejected Christ and are hope- 
less. In every city it is literally true that 
there are thousands of unchurched people 
without God and without hope in the 
world. Of them the text would be true. 



The Compassion of Jesus 293 

"But when he saw the multitudes he was 
moved with compassion." 

ii 

When Jesus saw these multitudes he 
saw them fainting or literally "growing 
tired," and this is the picture of lost peo- 
ple to-day. I am persuaded that they are 
tired of many things which follow in the 
wake of sin. 

1 . They must be weary of the hollow- 
ness of the world, for it cannot satisfy. I 
one day talked with a woman in Massa- 
chusetts whose opportunity to mingle with 
the so-called best people of the world had 
been unexcelled. She had been a chosen 
and welcomed guest in the homes of roy- 
alty and knew intimately every President 
of the United States since she had grown 
to womanhood. After her conversion 
I asked her if the life of the world had 
satisfied; her answer was, "It is hollow- 
ness and sham almost from beginning to 
end." 

2. The unchurched people must be 



294 And Judas Iscariot 

weary of an accusing conscience. There 
is no unrest like it. The man who sees 
the folly of his conduct and whose con- 
science will not let him sleep, the man 
who realizes the blighting power of sin 
and yet seems powerless to heed the call 
of conscience, is in a pitiful condition. 

"And I know of the future judgment, 
How dreadful so'er it may be, 
That to sit alone with my conscience 
Would be judgment enough for me." 

3. They must be tired of the world's 
sorrow, for it is on every side. We are 
born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward 
and I cannot but think that in all parts 
of our cities to-day the people away from 
Christ are saying, " Oh, that I knew where 
peace might be found." 

4. I know they are tired of the slavery 
of Satan. A man formerly prominent in 
social and political circles, the cashier of a 
bank, when he found that he was a de- 
faulter took his own life and left a letter 
for his wife in which he said, " Oh, if some 



The Compassion of Jesus 295 

one had only spoken to me when I so much 
needed help all this might have been 
different." 

in 

In the Old Testament and New, God's 
people are represented by the figure of 
sheep. Especially it seems to me this 
must be a good figure, because sheep when 
wandering find it impossible to seek again 
for themselves their home, and in their 
helplessness they fittingly represent the 
one who wanders away from God. There 
are so many people to-day who are trying 
to find their way back without Christ. 
They are like wandering sheep. There are 
so many who are seeking to climb up some 
other way into the favor of God. These 
are on every side of us, and the time has 
come for us to present unto them Jesus 
Christ the Savior of the world. 

IV 

These people that Jesus saw were shep- 
herdless. The responsibility for their 



296 And Judas Iscariot 

wandering therefore rested not so much 
upon themselves as upon the fact that the 
one who should have cared for them was 
not doing so. We are our brother's keeper, 
whether we are willing to acknowledge it 
or not. 

In meetings in California one of the 
ministers went forth during the week to 
invite those who were away from Christ 
to come to him. He found an old white- 
haired soldier who said, "When I was in 
the army years ago I promised God that 
I would be a Christian. I have never kept 
my word. Yes, I will come to him now/ 5 
And when he came his wife and children 
came with him. "All these years/' he 
said, "I have waited for some one to ask 
me." He called upon another man who 
had been impressed in the meetings and 
this man acknowledged that he had long 
felt his need of help, that he had prayed 
the night before, "O God, if you want 
me to come to thee send some one to speak 
to me." When the minister came the 
man trembled when he said, "You must 



The Compassion of Jesus 297 

be the messenger of God for whom I have 
been waiting/' and he came beautifully 
to Christ. On every side of us people are 
waiting as sheep without a shepherd for 
us simply to do our duty. 



The result of this vision which Jesus 
had was that he did an unusual thing. In 
the tenth chapter and the first verse we 
read, "And when he had called unto him 
his twelve disciples he gave them power 
against unclean spirits, to cast them out, 
and to heal all manner of sickness and 
all manner of disease/ 5 Which leads me 
to say that we must have the same spirit. 
Our present day church methods reach 
not more than one-fourth the unsaved and 
many of these come from the ranks of our 
Sundav schools and from Christian homes 
where for one reason or another they have 
not made a profession of their faith in 
Christ. Three-fourths of the lost are left 
to wander farther and farther away simply 



298 And Judas Iscariot 

because they will not yield to our present 
dav church methods. This is not as Jesus 
would have it. 

In the twenty-first chapter of John the 
fifth and sixth verses we read, "Then Jesus 
saith unto them, Children, have ye any 
meat? They answered him, No. And he 
said unto them, Cast the net on the right 
side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast 
therefore, and now they were not able 
to draw it for the multitudes of fishes." 
Although these disciples had toiled and 
taken nothing the results were all changed 
when they cast their net on the right side 
of the boat. May it not be that we have 
been fishing on the wrong side or fishing 
in our own strength, or, as some one has 
said, fishing in too shallow water, when we 
should have been casting our nets in the 
deep? The fact is, we need him and 
without him we can do nothing. 

I have been told that of the forty dis- 
tinct cases of healing in the New Testa- 
ment only six came to Jesus by them- 
selves. Twenty were brought to Jesus and 



The Compassion of Jesus 299 

to the fourteen others Jesus was taken. 
I doubt not that the proportion is the 
same to-day, and if it is true then our 
methods of work must be changed and 
instead of praying for them to seek Jesus 
we must either take them to Jesus or bring 
the Master into their company. There 
can be no successful winning of the multi- 
tudes until the personal element enters 
into it all. 

1. There must be prayer. When Jacob 
went forth to meet Esau he walked with fear 
and trembling, but in Genesis thirty-sec- 
ond chapter and twenty-eighth verse we 
read, "And he said, Thy name shall be 
called no more Jacob, but Israel, for as 
a prince hast thou power with God and 
with men, and hast prevailed, 55 so that 
long before Esau was met victory was 
won. There must be no attempt to win 
the lost without first of all we have gained 
an audience with God in prayer, and if 
we pray as we ought to pray he will 
give us the assurance of victory before 
we start upon our mission. 



300 And Judas Iscariot 

2. There must be personal contact. It 
is said that a man recently went into a v / 
jewelry store to buy an opal and re- 
jected all that were presented to him. 
One of them he rejected instantly. The 
salesman picked it up and closed it in 
his hand and finally in a casual way opened 
his hand and placed the opal upon the 
counter. "Why/ 5 said the customer, 
"that is the opal I want. I have never 
seen anything finer/' and yet he had re- 
jected it first. The salesman told him 
that it was a sensitive opal and needed the 
touch of a human hand before it could 
reveal its beauty. Oh, how many souls 
there are like this in the world ! 

I have read that when Robert Louis 
Stevenson visited the island of the lepers 
where Father Damien did his illustrious 
work he played croquet with the children, 
using the same mallets that they used; 
and when it was suggested that he put 
gloves upon his hands he refused to do so 
because, he said, "it will remind them the 
more of the difference between us. 55 This 



The Compassion of Jesus 301 

spirit must prevail in our work if we are 
to win souls. 

Two things we may do to reach the 
lost. 

(1) Speak to them. The power of 
human speech is simply marvelous. A 
Sunday school boy appeared in a 
Baptist Church to apply for membership 
and when they asked him about his con- 
version he said, "My Sunday school 
teacher took me for a walk one Sunday in 
Prospect Park and talked with me about 
Jesus and I gave myself to him." One 
of the officers of my church when an 
unsaved man was asked by his minister 
to attend special services in the church 
and then was urged by his wife to go with 
her. Both invitations were angrily de- 
clined. He at last agreed to escort her to 
the church but not to enter in. The bit- 
ing cold wind of the night drove him into 
the church and he was just in time to 
hear the minister's appeal to the unsaved. 
All were asked to lift their hands who 
would know Christ and then he remem- 



302 And Judas Iscariot 

bered that when he was a boy and had 
been drowning in Lake George he lifted 
up his hand as high as he could and his 
brother took hold of it and kept him from 
sinking. Suddenly it came to him in the 
church that he was sinking in another 
way, and instantly he raised his hand and 
Christ took hold of it. I do not know of 
a more godly man among all my list of 
friends than he; and he says to-day that 
the invitation given to him and refused 
with anger led him to Christ. 

(2) Write. The chief justice of the 
supreme court of a western state was 
not a Christian until a few years ago. He 
was a genial, kindly man, and naturally 
a great lawyer, but he had never confessed 
Christ as his Savior, and apparently had 
little real interest in the church. One day 
the pastor of the Presbyterian church deter- 
mined that he would write him a letter, 
and then decided that so great a man 
would not receive his communication and 
destroyed it. But the pastor's wife had 
more faith and urged him to write again. 



The Compassion of Jesus 303 

He did so, and sent the second letter and 
forwarded with it Spurgeon's "All of 
Grace." He received word almost in- 
stantly that the chief justice had been 
deeply impressed, and that as a matter 
of fact he was waiting for years for some 
one to speak to him. The letter moved 
him and the little book gave him the in- 
structions needed. To-day he is one of 
the brightest Christians I know. His face 
is a benediction. He said to me 
one day that it was a wonderful thing 
to be a Christian; that he never allowed 
any one to meet him that he did not talk 
with him about his soul. Are there not 
hundreds and thousands of other men 
waiting, as the chief justice waited, for 
some one to speak or write? 

3. There must be a personal consecra- 
tion not only to Christ but to the work if 
we would be successful. The biography 
of Helen Kellar, who was released from 
her imprisonment by the devotion of her 
teacher, is an illustration along this line. 
This teacher must go to this girl sitting 



304 And Judas Iscariot 

in darkness and describe to her the com- 
monest objects of every-day life. She 
told her about water, heat and cold and 
when something hurt her she told her 
with the language of touch that she loved 
her and Helen Kellar answered back, "I 
love you, too/ 5 The devotion of this 
teacher brought this noble soul to light 
and power. A work like this awaits many 
of us in bringing the lost to Christ. 

When Elisha went down to raise the 
Shunammite's boy he put his eyes to the 
eyes of the boy, his hands to the boy's 
hands and his mouth to his mouth. Some- 
thing like this we must do. We have 
friends who possess eyes and see not, we 
must have eyes for them; they have lips 
and speak not, we must speak to God for 
them; they have hands and reach them 
not out after God, and we must have faith 
for them. In other words, we must not 
let them go away from Christ. Such 
a spirit as this pleases God and such a 
spirit saves our friends. A friend told me 
that with the ship's surgeon of a vessel 



The Compassion of Jesus 305 

he once crossed the sea. He said the 
doctor told him that one day a boy fell 
overboard and was rescued but the case 
seemed hopeless. The ship's surgeon 
casually passing along the deck said to 
those who labored with him, "I think you 
can do nothing more; you have done all 
that is possible/ 5 and then curiosity led him 
to look at the boy for himself. Instantly 
his whole spirit was changed. He blew 
into his nostrils, breathed into his mouth, 
begged God to spare him, labored for four 
hours with him before he could bring him 
back to life, for the boy was his own boy. 
What if we should not have this spirit 
with the lost! 

"If grief in Heaven could find a place, 
Or shame the worshiper bow down, 
Who meets the Savior face to face, 
'Twould be to wear a starless crown." 

But on the other hand, what if we should 
simply be faithful ? Then may the follow- 
ing be true of us : 



306 And Judas Iscariot 

" Perhaps in Heaven, some day, to me 
Some sainted one shall come and say, 

All hail, beloved, but for thee 

My soul to death had fallen a prey. 

And, oh, the rapture of the thought, 
One soul to glory to have brought/ * 

General Booth of the Salvation Army 
describes a vessel making its way home 
from the Australian gold fields. The min- 
ers had struggled to get rich and at last 
every man had around about him his 
belt of gold. The ship lost her way in the 
ocean and, set out of her course, suddenly 
crashed upon the rocks of an island near 
by. Almost instantly she sank. As one 
miner stood looking at the shore he knew 
that he was strong enough as a swimmer to 
save his gold and save his own life; but 
as he was about to throw himself into the 
sea a little girl whose mother and father 
had been washed overboard came over 
to him to say, "Oh, sir, can you not save 
me?" It was then a choice between the 
child and the gold. The struggle was 
terrific but at last the gold was thrown 



The Compassion of Jesus 307 

aside, the child fastened to his body and 
he struggled through the waves until he 
fell exhausted and fainting upon the 
shore. The great Salvation Army officer 
says that when this strong man came to 
himself the little child was by his side. 
Throwing her arms about his neck she 
exclaimed with sobs, "Oh, sir, I am so 
glad you saved me." "That was worth 
more to him than the gold/ 5 said General 
Booth. And if in heaven some day 
upon the streets of gold we shall meet just 
one redeemed soul who was once lost and 
in the darkness, and we know that that 
one soul is there because we were true, the 
streets of gold will be better, the gates of 
pearl will be brighter, the many mansions 
more beautiful, the music sweeter, and, 
if such a thing were possible, the vision 
of Christ more entrancing. Certainly it 
would be thrilling to hear him say to us, 
"Inasmuch as ye did it unto these little 
ones ye did it unto me." 



SANCTIFICATION 

Text: " This is the will of God, even your sane- 
tification." — 1 Thess. 4: 3. 

It is quite significant that the Apostle 
Paul writes explicitly concerning sanctifi- 
cation to a church in which he had such 
delight that he could write as follows : 

"Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, 
unto the Church of the Thessalonians in 
God our Father and the Lord Jesus 
Christ : Grace be unto you, andpeace^from 
God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
We are bound to thank God always for 
you, brethren, as it is meet, because that 
your faith groweth exceedingly, and the 
charity of every one of you all toward 
each other aboundeth ; so that we our- 
selves glory in you in the churches of 
God for your patience and faith in all 
your persecutions and tribulations that 
ye endure: which is a manifest token of 
the righteous judgment of God, that ye 

309 



310 And Judas Iscariot 

may be counted worthy of the kingdom of 
God, for which ye also suffer: seeing it 
is a righteous thing with God to recom- 
pense tribulation to them that trouble 
you; and to you who are troubled rest 
with us; when the Lord Jesus shall be 
revealed from heaven with his mighty 
angels. In flaming fire taking vengeance 
on them that know not God, and that 
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ : who shall be punished with ever- 
lasting destruction from the presence of 
the Lord, and from the glory of his power; 
when he shall come to be glorified in his 
saints, and to be admired in all them that 
believe (because our testimony among 
you was believed) in that day" (2 Thessa- 
lonians 1: 1-10). 

No higher commendation than this 
could be paid to any followers of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and yet unto such a people 
we find him saying, "This is the will of 
God, even your sanctification." 

It reminds us of that other scene in 
the New Testament when Nicodemus 



Sanctificaiion 311 

comes to Jesus by night. He was a mem- 
ber of the Sanhedrim, he was in the tru- 
est sense of the word a moral man, and 
yet Jesus, knowing all this, deliberately 
looked into his face and said with empha- 
sis, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except 
a man be born of water and of the Spirit 
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; 
and that which is born of the Spirit is 
spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, 
Ye must be born again" (John 3: 5-7). 

Both of these statements lead us to 
believe that God's requirements for his 
people are very high. These we may not 
attain unto at all in our own strength or 
the energy of our flesh or because of any 
inherited righteousness which we may 
possess. There is no way to reach his 
standard except by complete identity with 
Christ; and this is made possible by 
means of faith. 

To know the will of God concerning 
anything is a great satisfaction. It is like 
food to our souls if we can say with Jesus, 



312 And Judas Iscariot 

"My meat is to do God's will." It is an 
indescribable pleasure if we can say with 
the Son of God, "I delight to do thy will." 
It is the key to the highest form of knowl- 
edge, for we have found it true that "he 
that doeth the will of God shall know of 
the doctrine." It is the promise of eternal 
life, for we are told in God's Word, "He 
that doeth the will of God abideth for- 
ever." There is possibly no place where 
God's will for us is more clearly stated 
than in this text. Sometimes we may 
know his will by praying. How often 
revelations have come thus to us as if from 
the very skies concerning his desires for 
us ! We may know it sometimes by think- 
ing. If one would but yield his mind per- 
fectly to God in his providences as well 
as in his word he would know God's will 
concerning him. We may know it some- 
times by talking to others, for not infre- 
quently God gives a revelation to one 
child of his for the guidance of another's 
life. But in this connection it is most 
definite] v stated, "This is the will of 



Sanctification 313 

God 9 even your sanctification." And the 
Apostle emphasizes his words, 

•First : By the use of the most affection- 
ate expression, "Furthermore then we 
beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by 
the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received 
of us how ye ought to walk and to please 
God, so ye would abound more and 
more" (1 Thessalonians 4:1). 

Second : He speaks on the authority of 
Jesus himself. "For ye know what com- 
mandments we gave you by the Lord 
Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 4:2). 

Third: He emphasizes it by referring 
to the second coming of our Lord, for he 
well knew that if one was looking for the 
appearing of the Son of God he would 
turn away from fleshly lusts and abstain 
from that which was unclean, thus en- 
couraging the work of sanctification. The 
Apostle Paul says to the Thessalonians 
after he has clearly set before them God's 
will concerning their living, "But I would 
not have you to be ignorant, brethren, 
concerning them which are asleep, that 



314 And Judas Iscariot 

ye sorrow not, even as others which have 
no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died 
and rose again, even so them also which 
sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 
For this we say unto you by the word of 
the Lord, that we which are alive and 
remain unto the coming of the Lord 
shall not prevent them which are 
asleep. For the Lord himself shall 
descend from heaven with a shout with 
the voice of the archangel, and with the 
trump of God: and the dead in Christ 
shall rise first: then we which are alive 
and remain shall be caught up together 
with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord 
in the air : and so shall we ever be with 
the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another 
with these words' 5 (1 Thessalonians 4: 
13-14). It was not enough for them, in his 
judgment, to abide in the faith ; they must 
abound in the works of the Gospel. To 
talk well without walking well is not pleas- 
ing to God, for the character of the Chris- 
tian is thus described, "He walks not 
after the flesh but after the Spirit." 



Sanctiftcation 315 

The presentation of this subject im- 
presses upon us the fact that we have 
lost many of the best words in the Bible 
because they have been misused and their 
teaching misapprehended. If you speak of 
holiness men look askance at you, and yet 
holiness is simply wholeness or health- 
fulness and is to the soul what health is to 
the body. Who, then, would be without it ? 
If you speak of sanctification immediately 
your hearers imagine you are talking con- 
cerning sinlessness, and yet there is no 
better word in the Scriptures than sancti- 
fication, for in one way it means separa- 
tion from sin, in another way it means an 
increasing likeness to Christ. There are 
six particular effects of faith. 

First: There is union with Christ. It 
is true that we were chosen in him before 
the foundation of the world and that we 
are an elect people, but it is also true that 
we are by nature the children of wrath and 
it is necessary that we should make a delib- 
erate choice of him as a Savior. When by 
faith we have taken Christ as a Savior we 



316 And Judas Iscariot 

are united to him. Faith is counting that 
which seems unreal as real, as untrue 
as true and that which seems not to exist 
as if it existed. Faith unites us to him. 
Without him we are as nothing. 

Second: Justification. " There is there- 
fore now no condemnation to them which 
are in Christ Jesus , who walk not after the 
flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:1). 
"He that believeth on him is not con- 
demned; but he that believeth not is con- 
demned already, because he hath not be- 
lieved in the name of the only begotten 
Son of God" (John 3 :18). As we believe 
in Christ we are clothed with his right- 
eousness. Whether we can explain it or 
not, this righteousness answers every de- 
mand of God's justice. Thus it is that 
Romans the eighth chapter the thirty- 
third and the thirty-fourth verses becomes 
true for us. Let it be noticed, however, 
that in both of these verses the two words, 
"it" and "is" are in italics, which would 
indicate that they were not in the original. 
Concerning those who are justified, there- 



Sanctification 317 

fore, the verses would read as follows: 
"Who shall lay anything to the charge 
of God's elect/ 5 The rest of the verse is 
a question, "God that justifieth?" The 
thirty-fourth verse reads, "Who is he 
that condemneth?" and the answer is 
a question, " Christ that died, yea rather 
that is risen again, who is even at 
the right hand of God who also maketh 
intercession for us?" and Paul here simply 
means to say that if God can lay nothing 
to our charge and Christ would not con- 
demn us then we are free, and justifica- 
tion at least to the layman carries with it 
this thought: 

1 . The justified man stands as if he'had 
not sinned at all. His record is clean. 

2. The debt which sin had incurred is 
paid and instead of being afraid and trem- 
bling at the thought of sin we sing with re- 
joicing," Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe." 

Third: Participation of his life. Paul 
writes to the Galatians, "I live, and yet 
not I, but Christ liveth in me." And in the 
fifteenth chapter of John the first six 



318 And Judas Iscariot 

verses we read, "I am the true vine, and 
my Father is the husbandman. Every 
branch in me that beareth not fruit he 
taketh away ; and every branch that bear- 
eth fruit, he purgeth it/that it may bring 
forth more fruit. Now ye are clean 
through the word which I have spoken 
unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As 
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, ex- 
cept it abide in the vine; no more can ye, 
except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye 
are the branches : he that abideth in me, 
and I in him, the same bringeth forth 
much fruit: for without me ye can do 
nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is 
cast forth as a branch, and is withered; 
and men gather them, and cast them into 
the fire, and they are burned." So faith 
unites us to him and his life becomes a 
very part of our being. 

(a) It is like the principle of grafting. 
When the branch is grafted into the tree 
the life of the tree throbs its way into the 
branch and ultimately there is fruitful- 
ness. If we only could sustain the right 



Sanctification 319 

relations to Christ we would have the cure 
for worldliness. 

(b) Because of this participation and 
privilege we need not be concerned. I 
have heard of a man who grafted a branch 
into a tree and then went each day to take 
the graft out to see what progress it had 
made, and the branch died. 

(c) Our life need not be intermittent— 
that is, hot to-day and cold to-morrow — 
but it may be all the time an abundant 
life ; not because of what we are but be- 
cause of what Christ is. 

Fourth: Peace. Romans 5:1, "There- 
fore being justified by faith, we have peace 
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." 
And peace arises from a sense of reconcil- 
iation. If faith is strong, then peace is 
abundant; if it is fitful peace partakes of 
the same character . That man who has 
faith in Jesus Christ as a personal Savior 
has the following threefold blessing — 
first, Peace with God; second, The 
Peace of God; third, The God of Peace. 

Fifth: Sanctification. Acts 26: 18, "To 



320 And Judas Iscariot 

open their eyes and to turn them from 
darkness to light, and from the power of 
Satan unto God, that they may receive 
forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among 
them which are sanctified by faith that is 
in me.' 5 Of this we shall speak more at 
length a little later. 

Sixth : Assurance. This is plainly 
written in God's word. Notice John 3: 
16, "For God so loved the world, that 
he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believeth in him should not perish but 
have everlasting life." And John 5: 24, 
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that 
heareth my word, and believeth on him 
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and 
shall not come into condemnation: but is 
passed from death unto life. 55 The entire 
first Epistle of John also emphasizes the 
same truth. 



Sanctification is therefore entirely by 
faith. 

First : By faith we receive the indwell- 
ing of the Spirit and he makes Christ real 



Sanctification 321 

to us. Because Christ is real by faith we 
may walk with him; and that man who 
keeps step w T ith Jesus Christ will find that 
he has come day by day to turn away from 
those things which were formerly his de- 
feat. We may also talk with him. That 
hymn which we sometimes sing, 

"A little talk with Jesus, 
How it smooths the rugged way," 

has been true in the experience of many 
of us. We may also be so constantly asso- 
ciated with him that we may find our- 
selves actually like him; and to grow like 
Christ by the power of the Spirit is to 
have the work of sanctification carried on. 
Second: By faith exercised in God the 
Spirit continues his work. We have only 
to remember the promises of God con- 
cerning him, the first of which is that the 
Spirit is here carrying on his special work 
in his particular dispensation. His second 
promise is that he is in us if we be children 
of God, and we need only to yield to his 
presence day by day to be delivered from 



322 And Judas Iscariot 

the power of sin. His third promise is 
that he will take of the things of God and 
show them unto us. Things which the 
world's people cannot understand he 
makes plain unto us. "Eye hath not seen 
nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into 
the heart of man to conceive the things 
which God hath prepared for those who 
love him/' but the Spirit hath revealed 
them unto us. The fourth promise is that 
he will not leave us. We may resist the 
Spirit, we may grieve the Spirit, but we 
will not grieve him away. His power may 
be greatly limited in our lives, the work 
of sanctification under the influence of 
his presence be greatly hindered, but he 
is with us, " nor height, nor depth, nor 
any other creature can separate us from 
him/' 

Third: By faith we have a vision of 
things unseen and they become real to us. 
Faith is to the soul what the eye is to the 
body. The things of God become actually 
real, and becoming so they are powerful. 
Under the influence of this vision temporal 



Sanctification 323 

things are trifling. The Christian who is 
true to his position lives in heaven, 
breathes its atmosphere, is pervaded by 
its spirit and so becomes pure, tender, 
obedient, loving. No wonder that to these 
people whose lives were so attractive 
Paul wrote in the text, "This is the will of 
God, even your sanctification." 

ii 

Justification and sanctification ought to 
be compared to appreciate the latter. The 
first is an act, the second is a work. We 
do not grow in justification. There is no 
distinction between Christians in this 
respect; the smallest child accepting 
Christ is as truly justified as the saint of a 
half century. So far as sanctification is 
concerned there is the widest possible dif- 
ference. Justification depends upon what 
Christ does for us, sanctification depends 
upon what Christ does in us. First of all 
it is a supernatural work. In this respect 
among others it differs from reformation. 
Henrv Drummond has said that in refor- 



324 And Judas Iscariot 

mation men work from the circumference, 
in sanctification they work from the cen- 
ter. The Triune God may really be 
counted upon as the author of this work. 
In 1 Thessalonians the fifth chapter and 
the twenty-third verse we have the work of 
the Father. "And the very God of peace 
sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your 
whole spirit and soul and body be pre- 
served blameless unto the coming of our 
Lord Jesus Christ." In Ephesians fifth 
chapter twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth 
verses we have the work of the Son. "Hus- 
bands, love your wives, even as Christ also 
loved the Church and gave himself for it; 
that he might sanctify and cleanse it with 
the washing of water by the word." 

In John the seventeenth chapter and 
the seventeenth verse we have special em- 
phasis laid upon the work of the Spirit. 
"Sanctify them through thy truth; thy 
word is truth." What folly, therefore, to 
think that we could carry on this work 
by ourselves ! 

Second: Just what, therefore, is this 



Sanctification 325 

work of sanctification? When we are re- 
generated we have given to us an entirely 
new nature. The old nature and the new 
are absolutely different; and the old and 
the new war one against the other. The 
Bible is full of the accounts of those who 
have met this inward conflict. Some of the 
most eminent people in the world whose 
names have been mentioned in the Bible 
and out of it have told the story of their 
backsliding, their falling, their repent- 
ance, and their lamentation because of 
their weakness. You have all read the 
seventh chapter of Romans. Whether 
this is the story of Paul's experience of not, 
it is the story of yours. Galatians the 
fifth chapter sixteenth and seventeenth 
verses gives us the same thought. 
"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, 
and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the 
flesh. For the flesh lusteth against 
the spirit, and the Spirit against the 
flesh: and these are contrary, the one 
to the other: so that ye cannot do the 
things that ye would." What is it, there- 



326 And Judas Iscariot 

fore? It is just the working day by day 
of the spirit of Christ in us. It is the 
growth of that spiritual nature which after 
a w T hile controls our whole being. It is the 
bringing into subjection of the old nature 
until it has no more dominion over us. 
After Paul's struggle in the seventh chap- 
ter of Romans he comes triumphantly 
to the second verse of the eighth chapter 
of Romans and exclaims, "For the law of 
the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made 
me free from the law of sin and death." 

in 

If God is the author, then certain things 
need to be emphasized. 

First: We need only to be yielding day 
by day to his efforts and presence and 
power to become more and more sanctified. 
His life flows along the path of least resist- 
ance; if there is difficulty with us in the 
matter of temper, sharpness of tongue, an 
impure mind or an unforgiving spirit, give 
him liberty and the work is complete. 

Second : We must learn that the least 



Sanctification 327 

thing may hinder his work in us. It be- 
came necessary for me recently to 
purchase a hayrake. I was told of two 
different kinds, one the old-fashioned kind 
where the prongs of the rake must be 
lifted by hand, the other an automatic 
arrangement where by simply touching the 
foot to a spring the movement of the wheels 
would lift the rake at the proper time so 
that raking hay was a delight. The first 
day the rake was in the field it was almost 
impossible to use it. It was too heavy to 
lift by hand and the foot attachment would 
not work We sent for the man who had 
sold us the implement. There was just 
one little part of the attachment missing. 
Missing that, hard effort was required and 
poor work was accomplished. It may be 
that some little thing stands in the way of 
your blessing, or the lack of some little 
thing hinders your usefulness. 

Third : We have only to remember the 
law of growth. We do not grow by trying. 
Who ever heard of a boy growing in this 
way? Who ever heard of a doctor who 



328 And Judas Iscariot 

had a prescription for growth ? Our effort 
for Christian growth is just a succession 
of failures. How many times we have 
said, "I am determined to be better; my 
temper shall never get the better of me 
again' 5 ! We are beginning at the wrong 
end. Instead of dealing with the symptoms, 
let us see that we are in right relations with 
Christ and he will effect the cure. Let us, 
therefore, just observe the right attitude 
towards Christ and we have the secret. 

Henry Drummond has said in one of 
his books that the problem of the Christian 
life is simply this: "Men must be brought 
to observe the right attitude. To abide in 
Christ is to be in right position and that 
is all." Much work is done on board a 
ship in crossing the Atlantic, yet none of 
this is spent in making the ship go. The 
sailor harnesses his vessel to the wind, he 
lifts his sail, lays hold of his rudder and 
the miracle is wrought. God creates, man 
utilizes. God gives the wind, the water, 
the heat, and man lays hold of that which 
God has given us, holding himself in posi- 



Sanctification 329 

tion by the grace of God, and the power 
of omnipotence courses within his soul. 

IV 

We are in this world slowly but surely 
coming to be like Christ. To be Christ- 
like is one thing — we may be in this way or 
that — but to be like Christ is entirely dif- 
ferent. Wonderful transformations have 
been wrought in this world by education 
and by culture. I remember when I was 
a lad in Indiana being told of a celebrated 
Indianapolis physician who advertised 
for the most helpless idiot child and the 
most hopeless was brought to him. For 
weeks and months no impression could 
be made upon that child. He used every 
day to take the child into his parlor, put 
him down on the floor and then lie beside 
him with the sunlight streaming in his 
face. He said over and over one syllable 
of a word until at last the child caught it, 
and I remember as a boy seeing that same 
child stand upon a platform, repeat the 
Lord's Prayer and the twenty-third Psalm 
and sing a hymn to the praise of God. This 



330 And Judas Iscariot 

is wonderful; but more remarkable than 
that is the work which is going on in us 
day by day. We are becoming more 
Christlike ; one day we shall be like Christ. 
"But when?" you say. This is the answer : 
"Beloved, now are ye the sons of God, 
and it doth not yet appear what we 
shall be : but we know that, when he shall 
appear, we shall be like him, for we shall 
see him as he is." 



AN UNHEEDED WARNING 

Text: "My Spirit shall not always strive with 
men." — Genesis 6:31. 

For the truth of this statement one needs 
only to study his Bible and he will find 
written in almost every book of Old Testa- 
ment and New a similar expression. At 
the same time in the study of God's word 
it will be revealed to him that God has a 
great plan which he is carefully working 
out. We must be familiar with the be- 
ginning and the unfolding of this plan .and 
with the conclusion he reached. When 
after the rebellion of his people and their 
unwillingness to obey his precepts we find 
him saying, " And God saw that the wick- 
edness of man was great in the earth, and 
that every imagination of the thoughts of 
his heart was only evil continually. And 
it repented the Lord that he had made 
man on the earth, and it grieved him at 
his heart. And the Lord said, I will de- 

331 



332 And Judas Iscariot 

stroy man whom I have created from the 
face of the earth; both man, and beast, 
and the creeping thing, and the fowls of 
the air; for it repenteth me that I have 
made them." 

Then turning to the New Testament 
Scriptures we find almost a similar ex- 
pression when Jesus reaches the climax of 
his compassionate and gracious ministry 
with the children of Israel. "He came 
unto his own and his own received him 
not"; and in the twenty-third chapter of 
Matthew and the thirty-seventh to the 
thirty-ninth verse, inclusive, we hear 
him saying, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 
thou that killest the prophets, and stonest 
them which are sent unto thee, how 
often would I have gathered thy children 
together, even as a hen gathereth her 
chickens under her wings, and ye would 
not ! Behold, your house is left unto you 
desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall 
not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, 
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of 
the Lord." 



An Unheeded Warning 333 

From that day on his special ministry 
was to the Gentiles, and he has been seek- 
ing in every possible way to bring us to 
an appreciation of what it means to know 
him and to be filled with all his fullness. 
We have but to stop for a moment and 
consider to realize that by many his over- 
tures have been declined, his Spirit 
grieved and his Son rejected. Men have 
lived as if they had no responsibility to- 
wards him at all and in many instances 
they have put him entirely out of their 
consideration. If we compare present day 
indifference and sin with the condition of 
things at the time of the flood, and then 
again compare them with the position of 
Israel when Jesus turned away from them 
with tears, it would seem almost as if the 
world of the present day had made 
progress both in the matter of indiffer- 
ence and rejection; and therefore it is 
not strange that such an Old Testa- 
ment text as this would be applica- 
ble to people living about us. It is a 
solemn text. "My Spirit shall not always 



334 And Judas Iscariot 

strive with men." It is along the line of 
those solemn words of Dr. Alexander : 

" There is a time, we know not when; 
A place, we know not where, 
That seals the destiny of man 
For glory or despair." 

Again we read, "Ye shall seek me and 
shall not find me, and where I am there 
ye cannot come." That also is the spirit 
of the text. God tells us, "To-day if ye 
will hear his voice harden not your heart," 
which simply means that if we neglect to 
hear the heart will become hardened, the 
will stubborn, and we shall be unsaved 
and hopeless. Again he tells us, "Now 
is the accepted time, and now is the day 
of salvation/ 5 So for men to act as if they 
might come at any time and choose their 
own way of salvation is to sin against him, 
and to all such he speaks the text — "My 
Spirit shall not always strive with men." 
It is assumed that the spirit of God does 
strive with men. If he will not strive 
always, then he does strive at some partic- 



An Unheeded Warning 335 

ular time, and with many of us he is striv- 
ing now. We may not be willing to con- 
fess it to our friends, but nevertheless it is 
true. In many ways he is bringing to our 
attention the eternal interests of our souls, 
and this is striving. . 

It is implied that men are resisting the 
Spirit of God. If this were not so there 
could be no striving, and the text indi- 
cates that men may continue so long to 
resist him and to sin against him that after 
a while the door of mercy will close and 
hope be a thing of the past. 



What is the striving of the Spirit? I 
have no doubt but that many are asking 
this question seriously and fearfully and 
it is worthy of our most careful considera- 
tion. 

1. It is just God speaking to us and 
causing us to say to ourselves if not to 
others, "Well, I ought to be a Christian; 
this life of worldliness does not pay." There 
is nothing but an accusing conscience, a 



336 And Judas Iscariot 

weakened character and a blighted life as 
the result of it. Do not for a moment think 
that this is just an impression that has 
come to you ; it is the voice of God and you 
would do well to hear it. This striving of 
the Spirit is simply the Spirit of God seek- 
ing to convince men that the only safe 
life is that which is hid with Christ in God, 
safe not only for eternity — the most of us 
believe that — but safe for time. Tempta- 
tions are too powerful for us to withstand 
alone and trials are too heavy for us to 
bear in our own strength. The striving 
of the Spirit is just our heavenly Father 
graciously attempting to persuade us to 
yield to him, sometimes by providences. 
When but a lad my old pastor used one 
night an illustration from which I never 
have been able to get away. It was the 
story of the old fisherman who took his 
little boy with him to fish and found that 
on his accustomed fishing grounds he was 
unsuccessful ; so, leaving the boy upon the 
little island, he started away to fish alone. 
The mists came down in his absence and. 



An Unheeded Warning 337 

missing his way, he lost his boy. He rowed 
everywhere calling him and at last he 
heard him in the distance, saying, "I am 
up here, papa ; over this way. 55 The fisher- 
man found him, but not quickly enough 
to enable him to escape the cold night 
winds, and the boy sickened and died. 
The old fisherman said: " Every night 
when I stood at my window I could see 
his outstretching hands and always above 
the storm I could hear his voice calling 
me upward. I could not but be a 
Christian." My mother had just # a 
few weeks before gone home to God, and 
I heard her voice as plainly as I could 
hear the voice of my friend at my side. 
Every vision of a mother in heaven, of a 
child in the skies, is a call of God. He 
seeks to persuade us by calamities. The 
Chicago theater horror, with its hun- 
dreds of women and children dead and dis- 
figured, was God's call to a great city and 
to the world. This is the striving of the 
Spirit. Not with audible voice does he 
speak to us but by means of impressions and 



338 And Judas Iscariot 

convictions. Let us not think for a mo- 
ment that these come simply because the 
preacher has influence and may possibly 
be possessed of a certain kind of genius 
or power. These are God's warnings to 
us. Be careful, therefore, how you resist 
them. Jesus said in John the sixteenth 
chapter the seventh to the eleventh verses, 
" Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is 
expedient for you that I go away : for if I 
go not away, the Comforter will not come 
unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him 
unto you. And when he is come, he will re- 
prove the world of sin, and of righteousness 
and of judgment. Of sin, because they 
believe not on me; of righteousness, be- 
cause I go to my Father, and ye see me no 
more; of judgment, because the prince 
of this world is judged. 5 ' The word 
"reprove" is a judicial word. When the 
judge has heard the testimony for or 
against the criminal and the arguments 
of the counsel, he himself sums up the 
case and lays it before the jury, bringing 
out the strong points or the weak ones in 



An Unheeded Warning 339 

relation to the criminal. This is reproving, 
and it is this that the Spirit does. He 
brings before us Jesus Christ and then 
presents unto God our treatment of him, 
and so it is easy to understand how the 
text could be true. "My spirit shall not 
always strive with men." 

2. How may we know that he is striv- 
ing? There are very many ways. 

(1) If the attention is aroused and cen- 
tered upon religious subjects and interests, 
then be careful how you treat God. The 
student who finds his mind constantly 
escaping from his books to the thought of 
eternity; the business man who cannot 
possibly escape the thought that he owes 
God something and ought not to slight 
him, these have proofs that the Spirit is 
striving. 

After an evangelistic meeting which I 
recently conducted I received the fol- 
lowing letter, which clearly indicates the 
striving of the Spirit: 

" I had not attended the church for 
years until to-night, but being a visitor in 



340 And Judas Iscariot 

C. and hearing that you were from the 
East and a Presbyterian I determined to 
go. I was lonely and it may be the Spirit 
was calling me. I heard you speak of 
your little boys and of the sainted mother 
who has gone before and my proud heart 
was touched. I, too, have two darling boys 
back in the old state, a loving Christian 
wife and a dear old mother who in 
parting said, 'Dear son, I am old and I 
may never see you again on earth, but if 
I am not here when you return, remem- 
ber, my son, my boy, we must meet in 
heaven/ 

"How much thaj meant to her! I did 
not quite realize it then, but your talk 
to-night impressed me and I believe that 
her prayers are being answered together 
with those of a loving, courageous, stead- 
fast Christian wife, and that I am at last, at 
the age of forty-two, beginning to see how 
great my opportunities to do good have 
been and how my example has been a 
great hindrance and stumbling block to 
others in the way of life. Admitting that 



An Unheeded Warning 341 

this life has no stronger emotion than our 
love for our families, how much more I 
am impressed to-night with my duty to 
him who gave his only Son to suffer that 
we might live in the life everlasting ! 

"In a busy business life and career I 
had drifted away from the safe anchorage 
of the church and Sunday school of my 
boyhood and had almost convinced my- 
self that by charity and exercising good 
will and kindliness in my business I could 
do almost as much good as if I were in the 
church ; but I see my mistake. To make 
an army effective we must stand in the 
ranks, must be soldiers in the army of 
Christ ready and willing to do at all times 
whatever we see before us. 

"I have written my dear old mother a 
letter to-night which I know will please 
her far more than if I had told her I had 
found a mine of California gold; her 
prayers, my wife's, yours and those of 
other true Christian men and women have 
been answered, and I realize that now, 
(not next week, nor next month, nor when 



342 And Judas Iscariot 

I get my business finished and go back to 
the East) is the day and the hour to remem- 
ber Christ and know that his love for us 
is greater even than the love that tugs at 
our heartstrings when we think of the 
dear little ones at home who lovingly call 
us father, and for whom we gladly 
endure the heartaches of separation when 
we know that our labors will contribute 
to their comfort and happiness. 

"I realize from the standpoint of a busi- 
ness man how many there are in the world 
to criticise your best efforts and your work 
and how few who ever stop to say, 'I 
thank you; you have done me good/ I 
take time to-night to do more. I want to 
say that your message from the King of 
kings has not fallen on stony ground. 
I shall try to enter again the battle of life, 
not as only in search of the wealth of this 
world but in search of the wealth that the 
world cannot take away — life everlasting. 

"You were right. Preach and pray the 
fathers into the Kingdom of God and the 
rest is easy, for all unconsciously our chil- 



An Unheeded Warning 343 

dren follow in our footsteps, watch our 
every word and action ; then how much, 
how much it means if our example is 
wrong !" 

ii 

(1) Whenever we are convinced espe- 
cially of the sinfulness of sin we may be 
sure that the Spirit is striving with us. There 
are times when we may be thoughtless 
and sin with impunity; but not so when 
the Spirit is doing his work, for sin is an 
awful thing. 

(2) Whenever we are impressed with 
the heinousness of unbelief be assured 
that the Spirit is at work, for the worst sin 
in all this world is not impurity but rather 
that we should not believe on Jesus Christ. 
To reject him is to sneer at God, to 
trample the blood of his Son under foot, 
to count his sacrifice a common thing and 
really to crucify him afresh. In all this 
impression God speaks. 

(3) When we see the danger of dying in 
ouj sins he is moving us. It is a mystery 
to me how men can close their eyes in 



344 And Judas Iscariot 

sleep when they realize that any night 
God might simply touch them and time 
would give way to eternity and the judg- 
ment would be before them. As a matter 
of fact men are not indifferent to this, and 
the fact that they are not proves that the 
Spirit of God is opening their eyes. 

(4) When he strips us of excuses be sure 
that he is working. The man who has 
said, " I will wait until I am better, " begins 
to realize that his past sins must be taken 
into account and no future resolutions can 
touch them. The man who has said, 
"There is time enough/' suddenly realizes 
that between him and eternity there is but 
a beat of the heart. The one who has 
claimed that hypocrisy in the church kept 
him out of it comes to see that hypocrisy 
proves the life of the church, for men 
never counterfeit that which is bad money 
but rather that which is good. 

(5) Whenever we see the folly of trust- 
ing in any other word than Christ's then 
the Spirit of God is with us. Not reforma- 
tion, for it does not touch the sins of the 



An Unheeded Warning 345 

past ; not resolution, for this is too weak, 
and though we may seem better than others, 
this may be true only according to our 
own standard. When we see the folly of 
these positions the Spirit of God is doing 
his work; so be careful how you treat him. 

in 

What would be the consequences of the 
Spirit ceasing his work? We really could 
not express it in words. No man has 
power or energy to make it plain. We can 
only just hint at the condition. 

1. There would be an opposition to reli- 
gion, for whenever you find a man turning 
against that which has been the world's 
hope remember that the state of that man 
is awful in the extreme and will grow 
worse. 

2. There will be an opposition to re- 
vivals, to all preaching and to the minis- 
ters of the Gospel wherever this spirit is 
made manifest. We ought to tremble for 
ourselves if this is our spirit, or for others 
if it is theirs. 



346 And Judas Iscariot 

3. Wherever men settle down into some 
form of error this is a description of one 
who has sinned against the Spirit of God, 
for there is a longing in every soul for some- 
thing outside of and beyond one's self; 
and the things of the world cannot alone 
satisfy. 

4. When men continue to grow worse 
and worse and seem to glory in their shame 
there is great cause for solemn thought. 
In the light of these suggestions the text is 
given, "My Spirit shall not always strive 
with men. 55 

IV 

Why should he cease his striving? 
Not because he is not compassionate, for 
he is ; nor forbearing, for that is his char- 
acter ; not that he is without patience, for 
he is infinite in this grace; nor because 
he is without mercy, for his mercy is from 
everlasting to everlasting. 

1. But because it will do the sinner no 
good to continue his pleadings. It is a 
known law of the mind that truth resisted 



An Unheeded Warning 347 

loses its power. Why should God con- 
tinue when we only spurn his offers of 
mercy? 

Agassiz, the great Christian scientist, 
tells of his work in the mountains when 
his assistants lowered him to his work by 
means of a rope and a basket. They al- 
ways tested his weight before letting him 
down; and yet he said that one day when 
they had lowered him deeper than ever 
they found that they could not lift him, 
though they had tested his weight before 
he had been lowered. They must go away 
over the mountains to secure other assist- 
ance. "And then," said the scientist, 
"when they did lift me they found that their 
failure was due to the fact that they did 
not take into account the weight of the 
rope." Every time you refuse Jesus Christ 
as your Savior and God calls you again 
you must lift against that other refusal, and 
this is why it is so difficult for some to 
come to Christ. 

2. Because to continue warning is to 
hinder the sinner. The more light we have 



348 And Judas Iscariot 

the greater guilt. Better would it be for 
the sinner when all hope is gone for the 
Spirit to leave, for he shall be called to 
account for warnings. Oh, the solemnity 
of the day of judgment ! 

3. Because to resist the Spirit of God is 
for men to sin willfully if the rejection is 
final. It is a sad thing to say "no" to God, 
and if we sin willfully there remaineth no 
more sacrifice for sins. 



What is meant by the Spirit not striving? 
Not that he will be withdrawn from men 
in general, but rather from the individual. 

1. He mav not follow the sinner, who 
will be indifferent to preaching, to 
praying, to his own spiritual condition, for 
he has given himself over to error. 

2. It simply means that we have come 
to the limit of his patience, for we have 
trifled with him in our continued rejection. 

3. It also means that there is just some 
one point where he will cease to work. 
That point may be here and that day may 



An Unheeded Warning 349 

be now, and so the text is solemn. A long 
time ago an old woman tripped and fell 
from the top of a stone stairway in Boston 
as she was coming out of the police 
station. They called the patrol and car- 
ried her to the hospital and the doctor 
examining her said to the nurse, " She will 
not live more than a day." And when 
the nurse had won her confidence the old 
woman said, "I have traveled from Cali- 
fornia, stopping at every city of impor- 
tance between San Francisco and Boston, 
visiting two places always — the police 
station and the hospital. My boy went 
away from me and did not tell me where 
he was going, so I have sold all my prop- 
erty and made this journey to seek him 
out. Some day," she said, "he may come 
into this hospital, and if he does tell him 
that there were two who never gave him 
up." When the night came and the doctor 
standing beside her said, "It is now but a 
question of a few minutes," the nurse bent 
over her to say, "Tell me the names of the 
two and I will tell your son if I see him." 



350 And Judas Iscariot 

With trembling lips and eyes overflowing 
with tears she said, "Tell him that the two 
were God and his mother/' and she was 
gone. 

I cannot believe that God has given any 
of you up- You would not be listening to 
this message, you certainly would not be 
reading these words if he had. He has not 
given you up. I beseech you therefore 
hear him. It would be a sad thing for you 
to say no to him at the last and have him 
take you at your word, and if he has not 
given you up I am persuaded that there 
is some one else in the world deeply con- 
cerned for your soul. 



THE APPROVAL OF THE SPIRIT 

Text: "Yea, saith the Spirit"— Rev. 14:31. 

The world has had many notable gal- 
leries of art in which we have been en- 
abled to study the beautiful landscape, to 
consider deeds of heroism which have 
made the past illustrious, in which we have 
also read the stories of saintly lives; but 
surpassing all these is the gallery of art in 
which we find the text. Humanly speak- 
ing John is the artist while he is an exile 
on the Island of Patmos in the Aegean 
Sea. The words he uses and the figures 
he presents are suggested by his sur- 
roundings, and it would be difficult to 
imagine anything more uplifting than the 
book of Revelation if it be properly studied 
and understood. When John speaks of 
the Son of Man he describes his voice as 
the sound of many waters — undoubtedly 
suggested by the waves of the sea break- 
ing at his feet. Locked in by the sea on 

351 



352 And Judas Iscariot 

this lonely island he gives to us this Reve- 
lation for which every Christian should 
devoutly thank God. His eyes are opened 
in an unusual way and before him as in 
panoramic vision the past, the present and 
the future move quickly, and he makes a 
record of all the things that he beholds. 
His body is on Patmos but as a matter of 
fact he seems to be walking the streets 
of the heavenly city and gives to us a 
picture of those things which no mortal 
eye hath yet beheld. He describes the 
risen Christ. It is a new picture, for as 
he beholds him his head and his hair are 
white like wool, as white as snow; and 
yet it is an old picture he gives, for he is 
presented as the Lamb that has been slain, 
w^ith the marks of his suffering still upon 
him, and these help to make his glory the 
greater, and if possible to increase the 
power and sweetness of the angels' music. 
He presents to us a revelation of the 
glorified church and of the four and 
twenty elders falling down at the feet of 
Jesus, casting their crowns before him 



The Approval of the Spirit 353 

and giving him all adoration and praise. 
He cheers us with a knowledge of the 
doom of Satan, for in the closing part of 
the book he presents him to us as bound, 
cast into the pit and held as a prisoner for 
a thousand years, while in every other 
part of the Bible he is seen going about 
like a raging lion seeking whom he may 
devour. He gives to us some conception 
of the final judgment, and the great white 
throne is lifted up before us; the dead, 
small and great, stand before God, the 
books are opened and those whose names 
are not found written in the book are cast 
away from his presence forever; and then 
as a climax of the picture we have before 
us the new r heaven and the new earth. 
Again I say, there is nothing so wonderful 
as Revelation if only we have the mind of 
the Spirit in its interpretation. 

In this text John is speaking of those 
who die in the Lord and the w r hole 
verse reads as follows: "And I heard 
a voice from heaven saying unto 
me, Write, Blessed are the dead which 



354 And Judas Iscariot 

die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, 
saith the Spirit, that they may rest from 
their labors; and their works do follow 
them" (Revelation 14:13). Ordinarily 
this text has been used only on funeral 
occasions, but literally interpreted the 
text which stands as the heart of the verse 
may be read as follows, "Amen, saith the 
Spirit." It would seem as if the Holy 
Ghost were giving his assent to the 
truth which has been spoken. "Blessed 
are the dead which die in the Lord." It 
is like an old time antiphonal service, when 
choir answered choir in the house of God; 
or, to put it in another way, it is one of 
those remarkable interruptions several 
instances of which are found in the Scrip- 
tures. 

One is in Hebrews the thirteenth chapter 
and the eighth verse, "Jesus Christ the 
same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." 
According to the revision this verse has 
an added word and reads as follows, 
"Jesus Christ the same yesterday and 
to-day, yea and forever." I call special 



The Approval of the Spirit 355 

attention to the little word "yea." Some- 
body has said that it is as if the Apostle 
were saying that Jesus is the same to-day 
that he was yesterday, than which no 
thought could be more comforting. And 
it would seem at the closing part of the 
verse as if the angels of God had broken in 
upon his message to say, "Yea, and he is 
forever the same," which is certainly true. 
Could anything be more inspiring than to 
know that we have the approval of the 
Holy Ghost of the things we say or think ? 
There are many representations' of 
the Spirit of God in the Bible. His love 
is presented under the figure of the 
mother love, as in Genesis the first chap- 
ter and the second verse; "And the earth 
was without form, and void ; and darkness 
was upon the face of the deep. And the 
Spirit of God moved [or brooded] upon the 
face of the waters." In this text the Spirit 
broods over the world as the mother bird 
hovers over her little ones. We see him 
in the figure of the dove in Matthew T the 
third chapter and the sixteenth verse: 



356 And Judas Iscariot 

"And Jesus, when he was baptized, went 
up straightway out of the water, and lo, 
the heavens were opened unto him and he 
saw the Spirit of God descending like a 
dove, and lighting upon him. 55 And here 
we have a revelation of his gentleness. 
Again he is presented to us under the 
figure of the wind, "And suddenly there 
came a sound from heaven as of a rush- 
ing mighty wind, and it filled all the house 
where they were sitting 55 (Acts 2:2). 
Here we see his power. We catch a vision 
of him in the fire in Acts the second chap- 
ter and the third verse, "And there ap- 
peared unto them cloven tongues like as 
of fire, and it sat upon each of them 55 ; and 
here we understand his cleansing influence. 
But here in this text we have his directing 
power. It is as if he were giving par- 
ticular attention to all that John is saying 
and giving his approval to it because it is 
the truth. Since the day of Pentecost he 
has occupied a new position. 

However, he has existed from all 
eternity. We behold him in his work in 



The Approval of the Spirit 357 

the Old Testament Scriptures. But from 
the day of Pentecost the affairs of the 
church have been committed to him, its 
organization, its development, its services, 
whether it be the preaching, the praying 
or the singing. We cannot ignore him, 
for he has to do with all the work and with 
the preaching of the word. He convicts 
of sin. John 6 : 44, "No man can come to 
me, except the Father which hath sent 
me draw him : and I will raise him up at 
the last day." He applies Christ to the 
awakened sinner, "Howbeit when he^ the 
Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you 
into all truth: for he shall not speak of 
himself ; but whatsoever he shall hear, that 
shall he speak : and he will shew you things 
to come. He shall glorify me: for he 
shall receive of mine, and shall shew it 
unto you." He helps to interpret the Word 
of God because he inspired men to write it. 
It is impossible to get along without him. 
I put no mark of disrespect upon scholar- 
ship. I know what it has accomplished; 
it has filled libraries with knowledge 



358 And Judas Iscariot 

which has made the world rich, it has 
weighed planets and given us almost a 
perfect understanding of the heavenly 
bodies. It has estimated the velocity of 
light until we have stopped to say, "Such 
things are too wonderful for us/ 5 It has 
read the tracings upon obelisks, and made 
the past an open book to us, giving us the 
secrets of men who have been thousands 
of years in their tombs, but I do wish 
to say that that which comes to us directly 
from the Spirit of God is beyond scholar- 
ship. Hear what Paul has said to us in 
1 Corinthians the second chapter and the 
ninth to the fourteenth verses. "But as it 
is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither have entered into the heart of man, 
the things which God hath prepared for 
them that love him. But God hath re- 
vealed them unto us by his Spirit : for the 
Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep 
things of God. For what man knoweth the 
things of a man, save the spirit of man 
which is in him? even so the things of God 
knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 



The Approval of the Spirit 359 

Now we have received, not the spirit of the 
world, but the spirit which is of God ; that 
we might know the things that are freely 
given to us of God. Which things also we 
speak, not in the words which man's wis- 
dom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost 
teacheth ; comparing spiritual things with 
spiritual. But the natural man receiveth 
not the things of the Spirit of God: for 
they are foolishness unto him ; neither can 
he know them, because they are spiritu- 
ally discerned." 

There are certain great truths to which 

1 am sure the Holy Ghost would say a 
deep amen. 

i 

The Bible is the word of God — not 
simply that it contains the word of God, 
but is that very word. 

Peter tells us where we got our Bible. 

2 Peter 1 : 21, "For the prophecy came not 
in old time by the will of man; but holy 
men of God spake as they were moved by 
the Holy Ghost/ 5 It is an inspired Book, 
and inspiration is the inbreathing of God 



360 And Judas Iscariot 

himself. This makes the Bible different 
from every other book. We cannot study- 
it exactly as we study others. We may 
pick it up and say it is just paper, ink and 
leather, like any other book, but we have 
missed the power of it if we say this. We 
might say, "Jesus is just a man, eating, 
drinking, sleeping, suffering like a man"; 
but we have missed his power if we say 
only this, for the Bible is filled with God, 
and Jesus is God Himself. Jesus said, 
"Ye must be born again if ye are to enter 
my Kingdom," and this makes the dif- 
ference in men. Because of this new 
birth one man sees the things of God to 
which another would be totally blind, and 
this makes the difference in books and 
leaves the Bible incomparably beyond all 
other books. 

How may we know that the Bible is the 
word of God? Not simply scientifically, 
although the Bible is a scientific book; but 
not in this way any more than we could 
find life in the body by cutting it up with 
a knife. The Bible is like a sensitive 



The Approval of the Spirit 361 

plant; approach it in the wrong way and 
it will close its leaves and withhold its 
fragrance. Come to it reverently and 
there is no blessing that it cannot bestow. 

1. Accept it by faith and act according 
to its principles. If God exists, as we 
know he does, then talk with him; if 
Christ is here presented to us with all his 
uplifting teachings, then walk with him; 
if the promises of God are written here, as 
we know they are, then present them to 
him expecting him to keep his word. 

General Booth of the Salvation Army 
once said in a great meeting where I was 
present that we were poor, weak Christians 
to-day because we were not living up to 
our privileges as Christians. He described 
a young man who had lost his position and 
had gone from one degree of poverty to 
another until at last he was on the verge 
of starvation. With his wife and little 
ones about him he sits in deepest gloom. 
There is a rap at the door and the post- 
man brings a letter which is a message 
from a former employer who tells him 



362 And Judas Iscariot 

that he has just learned of his distress, 
that he will help him, and that in the 
meantime he incloses his check for a sum 
of money which he hopes may make him 
comfortable. A check is simply a promise 
to pay. The young man, says General 
Booth, looks at it a moment and then be- 
gins to rush about the room in great ex- 
citement. "Poor man/' said his wife, 
"I knew it would come to this. His 
mind is giving way." Then he presents 
the check to her and says, "I know what 
I shall do with it. I will frame it and hang 
it on the wall." Then again he exclaims, 
"I shall take it to my friend and have him 
set it to music and sing it each day," and 
he might do both of these and starve to 
death. What he should have done was 
to present it for payment and live off of 
its proceeds. "We have been framing 
God's promises long enough," said Gen- 
eral Booth, "and singing them quite long 
enough ; let us now present them for pay- 
ment, and we shall know that God is 
true." 



The Approval of the Spirit 363 

2. Live its truth. Whatever God pre- 
sents as a principle translate into your life 
and then believe that God will transform 
your living. It will support you in trial 
and it will comfort you in the deepest 
sorrow. 

The world was shocked by that great 
railroad accident which meant the death 
of Mrs. Booth-Tucker, but when in Car- 
negie Hall Commander Booth-Tucker 
stood to speak great words concerning his 
noble wife he said: "I was once talking 
with a man in Chicago about becoming, a 
Christian and he said to me, 'If God had 
taken away your beautiful wife and you 
were left desolate with your little children 
would you believe in him?' And/' said 
the Commander before his great New 
York audience, "if that man is in this 
audience to-day let me tell him, God 
has taken my beautiful wife and I am here 
surrounded by my children, but I never 
believed in him more thoroughly and was 
never more confident of the truth of his 
Word." 



364 And Judas Iscariot 



ii 

Jesus Christ is the Son of God. To this 
truth I am very sure the Holy Ghost will 
add his amen. In John the fifteenth chap- 
ter and the twenty-sixth verse we read, 
" But when the Comforter is come, whom 
I will send unto you from the Father, even 
the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from 
the Father, he shall testify of me. 55 And 
if you would know that Jesus Christ is 
God's Son I would suggest, 

1. That you simply test him; try him 
in heathen lands and tell me if any other 
story could thrill and transform as does the 
story of his life and death. Dr. Torrey 
says that whether the story was told in 
China or England, whether the story was 
told in India or Australia, it was always the 
same and never was without effect. 

2. Try him in your own life. One 
day in a service in a western city an old 
woman was wheeled into the church in 
an invalid's chair. I knew by the expres- 



The Approval of the Spirit 365 

sion of her countenance that she was suf- 
fering. When I met her after the service 
and asked her about her story she said as 
the most excruciating pain convulsed her 
body, "I have not been free from pain in 
twenty years and have scarcely slept a 
night through all that time/' and then, 
brushing the tears from her eyes, and with 
an expectant face, she exclaimed, "but if I 
could tell you all that Jesus Christ has 
been to me in these twenty years I could 
thrill you through and through." 

3. If you would know that he is the 
Son of God just lift him up and behold 
him as he draws all men unto him. This 
is the secret of the power of great preach- 
ing. It made Mr. Moody known where- 
ever the English language is spoken and 
constituted Mr. Spurgeon one of the 
world's greatest preachers. As a matter 
of fact there is no other theme which may 
be presented in the pulpit by the minister 
with an assurance of the co-operation of 
of the Holy Ghost. There may be times 
when he may feel obliged to preach con- 



366 And Judas Iscariot 

cerning philosophy, poetry, art and 
science, but unless these things lead 
directly to Christ we have no reason for 
believing that the Holy Ghost will add his 
amen to our message, and without this 
amen the time is almost lost. 

in 

The church is the body of Christ. I am 
persuaded that to this truth he will give 
his hearty assent. This is Paul's over and 
over. Notice the following verses. 

Acts 2:41, "Then they that gladly 
received his word were baptized ; and the 
same day there were added unto them 
about three thousand souls. " The words 
"unto them" are in italics, so not in the 
original, and we ask "added to what?" 

Acts 2: 47, "Praising God, and having 
favor with all the people. And the Lord 
'added to the Church 9 daily such as 
should be saved." Here we are beginning 
to get the truth. 

Acts 5:14, "And believers were the 
more added to the Lord, multitudes both 
of men and women." This is the truth. 



The Approval of the Spirit 367 

You will see that Christ is the head, the 
church is his body and we are, as in- 
dividual members of the church, just 
being added to him. One day the body 
will be completed and then the Lord him- 
self will appear. If Christ is the head he 
must control the body. If his life is hin- 
dered and not permitted to flow through 
every part of it there is confusion, strife, 
unrest and loss of power. 

There are certain things which we must 
do if we are to be in this world as he would 
have us. 

He must control the preaching. If 
given an opportunity he will direct in the 
choice of a theme, he will quicken our 
intellect in the development of that theme, 
he will give us an insight into the best way 
to present it to our hearers, and putting 
faith in these preliminary conditions he 
will take care of the results. He must also 
dictate the praying in a church. There is 
much of it that is meaningless. It is too 
formal, too lifeless, and entirely too gen- 
eral in its character. In Matthew the eight- 



368 And Judas Iscarioi 

eenth chapter and the nineteenth verse, 
we read, "Again I say unto you, That if 
two of you shall agree on earth as touching 
anything that they shall ask, it shall be done 
for them of my Father which is in heaven." 
It does not mean that if the two should 
agree together as touching any one thing, 
but agree with him, for wherever you find 
two in prayer there are three, and wherever 
there are three there are four, and the 
additional one present is the Spirit of God 
waiting to help us in our praying and to 
present our prayers unto the Father in the 
name of Jesus Christ. 

He must inspire the singing of the 
church. In Ephesians the fifth chapter 
and the nineteenth verse we read, " Speak- 
ing to yourselves in psalms and hymns and 
spiritual songs, singing and making melody 
in your heart to the Lord." One reason 
why there is such a lack of power in many 
churches in this country is due to the fact 
that the singing is simply used as filling for 
the services. Hymns are used in a hap- 
hazard way with little thought as to their 



The Approval of the Spirit 369 

bearing upon the theme to be presented. 
I am quite persuaded that when the 
preaching, praying and singing are all 
submitted to his control, whatever may be 
man's opinion of the service, he himself 
will give to it his hearty amen. 

IV 

We are the sons of God. In Romans 
the eighth chapter the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth verses we read, "The Spirit itself 
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are 
the children of God ; and if children, then 
heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with 
Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, 
that we may be also glorified together." 
To this truth he will say amen. A careful 
study of the Scriptures will reveal the fact 
that, 

1. We are heirs. If therefore this be 
true we have but to claim our birthright 
privilege, and there is no weakness in our 
lives but may be offset by the strength 
of his. Whatever Christ has received as 
the head of the church he has received in 



370 And Judas Iscariot 

trust for the body and we may have our 
possession in him if we but appropriate it. 

A man in England died the other day 
in the poorhouse. He had a little Eng- 
lish farm upon which he could raise no 
grain and he let it go to waste and died a 
pauper. His heirs discovered that on this 
little English possession there was a cop- 
per mine and they are living in luxury 
to-day in the possession of that which 
belonged to their ancester all the time but 
was not appropriated and used by him. 

2. Being sons of God, we are not free 
from trial; but there is this one thing to 
say about our Christian experience: "Our 
light afflictions which are but for a mo- 
ment work for us a far more exceeding and 
eternal weight of glory/ 5 and God's pres- 
ence with us in trial is infinitely better 
than his absence from us in the time of 
prosperity. Our trials are but the discipline 
through which we must pass in order that 
we may one day be prepared to stand in 
his presence and do his bidding through- 
out eternity. 



The Approval of the Spirit 371 

3. Being sons of God, we are sure one 
day of glory. The song which has been 
singing its way around the world in the 
Torrey-Alexander meetings presents this 
thought to us beautifully. 

"When all my labors and trials are o'er 
And I am safe on that beautiful shore, 
Just to be near the dear Lord I adore 
Will thro' the ages be glory for me. 

"When by the gift of his infinite grace 
I am accorded in heaven a place, 
Just to be there and look on his face 
Will thro' the ages be glory for me. 

"Friends will be there I have loved long ago; 
Joy like a river around me will flow; 
Yet just a smile from my Savior, I know, 
Will thro' the ages be glory for me. 

Chorus. 
"Oh, that will be glory for me, 
Glory for me, glory for me, 
When by his grace I shall look on his face, 
That will be glory, be glory for me." 

Whatever may be our limitations here, 
they shall be gone there; whatever may be 
our weakness here, it shall be lost there. 



372 And Judas Iscariot 

Dr. Charles Hodge in his "Lectures on 
Theology' ' has given us an imaginary pic- 
ture of Laura Bridgman, the famous deaf- 
mute. The celebrated theologian has 
described her standing in the presence of 
Christ in that great day when we shall all 
be before Him, when Christ shall touch 
her eyes and say, "Daughter, see," and 
there shall sweep through her vision all 
the glories of the sky; when He shall 
touch her ears, which have been so long 
closed, and say, "Daughter, hear," and 
into her soul shall come all the harmonies 
of heaven ; when he shall touch her lips, 
which on earth have never spoken a hu- 
man word, and say, "Daughter, speak," 
and with all the angel choir she will burst 
into the new song. What Dr. Hodge has 
said concerning Laura Bridgman will be 
true of us. Our day of limitations will 
be past, the experiences of weakness be 
gone, and we shall be like him, for we 
shall see him as he is. 

This, therefore, is a good outline of a 
creed for us to-day. We believe the Bible 



The Approval of the Spirit 373 

is the Word of God, we believe that Jesus 
is the Son of God, we believe that the 
Church is the body of Christ, we believe 
that we are by regeneration the sons of 
God, and making such a statement we 
have a right to stop and listen and I am 
sure we shall hear as from the skies, 
"Amen, saith the spirit." 



A REASONABLE SERVICE X 

Text: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the 
mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living 
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your 
reasonable service." — Romans 12: 1. 

There is perhaps no chapter in the New 
Testament, certainly none in this epistle, 
with which we are more familiar than 
this one which is introduced by the 
text; and yet, however familiar we may.be 
with the statements, if we read them care- 
fully and study them honestly they must 
always come to us not only in the nature 
of an inspiration but also with rebuke, 
especially to those of us who preach. 

Paul's intellectual ability has never been 
questioned. Yet, giant though he was 
in this respect, he was not ashamed to be 
pathetic when he likens his care for his 
people to the care of a nurse for her chil- 
dren. He is not ashamed to be extrava- 
gant when he likens his sorrow and pain 

375 



376 And Judas Iscariot 

at their backsliding to the travail of a 
woman for her child. He is not ashamed to 
be intense when in the ninth chapter and 
the first, second and third verses he says, 
"I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my 
conscience also bearing me witness in the 
Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness 
and continual sorrow in my heart. For I 
could wish that myself were accursed from 
Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen 
according to the flesh." 

We must also be impressed with the 
fact that he was not at all afraid of public 
criticism. He not only sat at Gamaliel's 
feet but the great lawmaker might well 
have taken his place at his feet, and yet he 
says, "I am willing to be counted a fool 
if only I may win men to Christ.' ' He 
is not bound by custom. He not only 
preaches in the synagogue and in the 
places set apart for the churches of the 
early days, but he goes about from house to 
house entreating people to come to Christ. 
He is not ashamed to weep, for he sends 
his messages to the people and exclaims, 



A Reasonable Service 377 

"I tell you these things weeping"; and 
here in this text he is strikingly unusual, 
for he is not a preacher speaking with 
dignity, nor an Apostle commending 
obedience, but a loving friend beseeching 
in the most pathetic way the yielding of 
themselves to Christ. 

There are two things to remember about 
Paul in the study of such a subject. 

First: He was a Jew and he knew all 
about offerings. Sacrifices were not forms 
to him and a living sacrifice was ngt a 
meaningless expression. He had been 
present on the great day of Atonement 
when the scapegoat bore aw T ay the sins of 
the people. He had heard the chimes of 
the bells on the high priest's robe as he 
moved to and fro before the entrance to 
the holy of holies, and he had waited 
with breathless silence for him to come 
forth giving evidence in his coming of the 
fact that Israel could once more approach 
Jehovah. The text to him was throbbing 
with holy memories and was full of signifi- 
cance. 



378 And Judas Iscariot 

Second: He received his instructions 
concerning these things of God, not from 
men, for when he writes to the Galatians 
he says : "But I certify you, brethren, that 
the gospel which was preached of me is 
not after man, for I neither received it of 
man, neither was I taught it, but by the 
revelation of Jesus Christ" (Galatians 1: 
11-12). And so, since he is a heaven- taught 
man, we must listen while he speaks and 
give heed to his entreaties. 



The context. We shall not appreciate 
this striking text unless we take into 
account its setting. 

The first chapters of Romans present 
to us a black cloud indeed, for when the 
first sentences are spoken we shudder 
because of their intensity. We read in the 
twenty-fourth verse that God gave the 
people up to uncleanness; in the twenty- 
sixth verse that he gave them up to vile 
affections, but in the twenty-eighth verse 
that he gave them over to a reprobate 



A Reasonable Service 379 

mind. With this awful condition of 
affairs we start; and yet for fear that the 
man who counts himself a moralist might 
read these verses and feel that they did not 
apply to him, Paul writes in the third chap- 
ter and the twenty-second verse these 
words, "Even the righteousness of God, 
which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all 
and upon all them that believe ; for there 
is no difference." But when the cloud is 
the blackest the rays of light begin to ap- 
pear, and they are rays of light from 
heaven; looking on the one side at mystery 
and catching a vision on the other side of 
grace, Paul exclaims, "I beseech you there- 
fore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that 
ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, 
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your 
reasonable service" (Romans 12: 1).. 

The word mercy is of frequent occur- 
rence in the Bible. "From everlasting to 
everlasting is God's mercy," we read. This 
gives us some idea of duration. "New 
every morning and fresh every evening 
are his mercies." This reveals to us the 



380 And Judas Iscariot 

fact that they are unchanging. "He is a 
God of mercy. " This is his character. 
"Let the wicked forsake his way and the 
unrighteous man his thoughts and let him 
return unto the Lord and he will have 
mercy upon him." This is the invitation 
of God given to all the world ! But Paul 
is not speaking of mercy in general ; he 
goes on in his masterful argument out- 
lining the doctrines of grace and on the 
strength of that he uses the text. 

First : We are justified. The fifth chap- 
ter and the first verse, "Therefore being 
justified by faith, we have peace with 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ." 
In justification our sins are pardoned and 
we are accepted as righteous because of 
the righteousness of Christ, which is im- 
puted unto us and received by faith alone. 
And yet to him this definition in every day 
language means that, being justified, we 
stand before God as if we never had sinned. 
No wonder that in the light of such a 
doctrine Paul could say, "I beseech you 
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, 



A Reasonable Service 381 

that ye present your bodies a living sacri- 
fice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is 
your reasonable service" (Romans 12: 1). 

Second: We are kept safe. Romans 5: 
10, "For if, when we were enemies, we 
were reconciled to God by the death of his 
Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall 
be saved by his life.' 5 Literally the closing 
part of this verse is, "We are kept safe in 
his life." A child in its mother's arms 
could not be so secure as we in his life. 
Underneath us are the everlasting arms 
and around about us the sure mercies of 
God. 

Third: We are baptized into his death. 
"Know ye not that so many of us as were 
baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized 
into his death?" (Romans 6:3.) "The 
wages of sin is death." This is God's 
irrevocable statement, but Christ died for 
our sins and Paul's argument here is that 
we died with him, so the demands of the 
law have been met and we are to go free. 
No wonder Paul could say, "I beseech 
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of 



382 And Judas Iscariot 

God, that ye present your bodies a living 
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which 
is your reasonable service/' 

Fourth: We are alive unto God. Ro- 
mans 6: 11, "Likewise reckon ye also 
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but 
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord." Not only are we justified and kept 
safe and crucified with him and buried 
with him but in the plan of God we are 
risen with him. What a wonderful mercy 
this is ! 

Fifth: We have deliverance from the 
self life. The seventh chapter of Romans 
is just the cry of a breaking heart and 
reaches its climax in the twenty- fourth 
verse, "O wretched man that I am! who 
shall deliver me from the body of this 
death?" But the deliverance is in the 
eighth chapter, especially in the second 
verse, "For the law of the Spirit of life 
in Christ Jesus hath made me free from 
the law of sin and death." What a mercy 
this is ! 

Sixth: For those of us who believe 



A Reasonable Service 383 

there is no condemnation. Romans 8:1, 
" There is therefore now no condemnation 
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who 
walk not after the flesh, but after the 
Spirit." Judgment is past because he has 
been judged. We have nothing to do with 
the great white throne; Christ as our 
substitute has met sin's penalty and paid 
our debts. What a mercy this is! No 
wonder Paul is thrilled with the thought 
of it. 

Seventh : No separation. Romans 8 : 
38-39, "For I am persuaded, that neither 
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principal- 
ities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
things to come, nor height, nor depth, 
nor any other creature, shall be able to 
separate us from the love of God, which 
is in Christ Jesus our Lord." So that for 
time we are safe and our eternity is sure. 
Was there ever such a catalogue of mer- 
cies? In the light of all this the Apostle 
exclaims, "I beseech you therefore, breth- 
ren, by the mercies of God, that ye present 
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, accept- 



384 And Judas Iscariot 

able unto God, which is your reasonable 
service" (Romans 12: 1). 

It is a good thing to study Paul's 
"therefores." He is a logician of the high- 
est type. 

In Romans 5:1, there is the "therefore 
of justification." 

In Romans the eighth chapter and the 
first verse there is the "therefore of no con- 
demnation" 

In Romans the twelfth chapter and the 
first verse there is the "therefore of conse- 
cration, " and this as a matter of fact is the 
outline of the Epistle. 

ii 

Present your bodies. This means the 
entire yielding of one's self to Christ It 
corresponds to the Old Testament presen- 
tation of the burnt offering all of which 
was consumed. Back in the Old Testa- 
ment times for fourteen years there had 
been no song in the temple, for it was filled 
with rubbish and uncleanness, but the 
rubbish was put away and the unclean- 



A Reasonable Service 385 

ness vanished, the burnt offering was pre- 
sented and the song of the Lord began 
again. If you have lost your song and 
have been deprived of the harmony of 
heaven then present your bodies a living 
sacrifice. 

There is a threefold division in man's 
nature. 

The Spirit, where God abides if we are 
his children. This is like the holy of 
holies. 

The SouL which is the abode of the man 
himself. 

The Body, which is the outer court. 

When Christ was crucified the veil of the 
temple w^as rent in twain and the whole 
was like one great compartment. I can- 
not but think that if we should come to the 
place of complete consecration, the accept- 
ance in our lives of what was purchased 
for us when he was crucified, for us 
the veil of the temple would be rent in 
twain and not only would God abide in 
our spirits but he would suffuse our whole 
nature, look with our eyes, and speak with 



386 And Judas Iscariot 

our lips. This must have been what Paul 
meant when he said, "I live, yet not I, but 
Christ liveth in me." 

in 

A living sacrifice. That is in contrast 
with the dead offering of the Old Testa- 
ment sacrifice. Suppose for a moment 
that it would have been possible for an 
offering to have been presented in the Old 
Testament times and then after that for 
it to have lived again; it is inconceivable 
that this offering would have been put to 
any unholy use. I have many times tried 
to imagine the surprise of the son of the 
widow of Nain and the daughter of Jairus 
after their being raised from the dead. 
They certainly could not have lived self- 
ish, sinful lives again, and I am sure that 
Lazarus when once he had been in the 
grave and was raised at the voice of the 
Master could never again have been 
worldly and unclean. But let it not be for- 
gotten that we are a risen people; we were 
crucified with Christ, we died with Christ, 



A Reasonable Service 387 

we were buried with Christ, we have risen 
with Christ ! How then ought we to live ? 

In one of our western cities a minister 
told me recently of a young man w T ho had 
graduated at a school for stammerers and 
came to see him one day. Keeping time 
with his fingers in the use of his words 
he said slowly: 

"I — want — to — speak — to — you. ' ' 
Without following his method of speech 
through I will quote what he said: "I 
have for a long time wanted to bfe a 
Christian and was ashamed to attempt to 
speak when it was so imperfectly done, 
but now I have graduated and I have the 
control in part at least of my speech, and 
I have come to you to-day to make my 
confession, for the first use I make of my 
voice must be the confession of him who 
loved me and gave himself for me. 55 

IV 

Your reasonable service. It is a reason- 
able service, 

First: Because God uses human in- 



388 And Judas Iscariot 

strumentality and he needs you, and it is 
therefore a reasonable demand to make, 
for we should place ourselves absolutely 
at his disposal. 

In the guest book of a friend I saw 
recently a few lines written by Dr. John 
Willis Baer in which he said, quoting from 
another : 

"God gave himself for us. 

"God gave himself to us. 

" God wants to give himself through us.' 5 

But if our lives are inconsistent and 
our hearts are unclean he cannot do it. If 
we have not yielded ourselves altogether 
God himself is limited. 

Second: It is a reasonable request to 
make because of what God has done 
for us. 

One of the distinguished ministers of 
the Presbyterian Church told us the other 
day in a conference in a western city that 
a little boy who had been operated upon 
by Dr. Lorenz said as soon as he came out 
from under the anesthetic, "It will be a 
long time before my mother hears the 



A Reasonable Service 389 

last of this doctor"; and then, said my 
friend, "I thought of an incident in my 
own life of a poor German boy whose feet 
were tw r isted out of shape, whose mother 
was poor and could not have him operated 
upon, and I determined to bring him to a 
great doctor and ask him to take him in 
charge. The operation was over and was 
a great success. When the plaster cast 
had been taken off from his feet my friend 
said he went to take him home. He called 
his attention to the hospital and the Boy 
admired it, but he said, 'I like the doctor 
best/ He spoke of the nurses and the 
boy was slightly interested, but said, 'They 
are nothing compared to the doctor.' He 
called his attention to the perfect equip- 
ment of the hospital and he was unmoved 
except as again and again he referred to 
the doctor. They reached the Mis- 
souri town and stepped out of the station 
together, and the old German mother 
was w r aiting to receive him. She did not 
look at her boy's face nor at his hands but 
she fell on her knees and looked at his 



390 And Judas Iscariot 

feet and then said sobbing, 'It is just 
like any other boy's foot/ Taken into 
her arms, the minister said all the boy 
kept saying to her over and over was, 
'Mother, you ought to know the doctor 
that made me walk/ " 

Then my friend said, "There is not one 
of us for whom Jesus Christ has not done 
ten thousand times more for us than the 
doctor did for this boy, and we have never 
spoken for him, we have not yielded our- 
selves to him." It must have been with 
some such spirit as this that the Apostle 
said, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, 
by the mercies of God, that ye present your 
bodies a living sacrifice, which is your 
reasonable service ' ' (Romans 12:1)., 



THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LIFE 

Text: "My beloved is mine, and I am his." — ■ 
Sol. Song 2:16. 

"I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine" — Sol* 
Song 6:3. 

"I am my beloved's and his desire is toward me ." — 
Sol. Song 7:10. 

These three texts should be read B to- 
gether, and the significant change found 
in each text as the thought unfolds should 
be studied carefully. They remind one 
of three mountain peaks one rising higher 
than the other until the third is lifted into 
the very heavens. Indeed, if one should 
live in the spirit of this third text he would 
enjoy what Paul has described as a life 
in the heavenly places, and his picture of 
Christ would be surpassingly beautiful. 
At the same time the three texts give us a 
complete picture of a true Christian life. 
The first text may be regeneration, the 

391 



392 And Judas Iscariot 

second text consecration, and the third 
text sanctification. 

The Jews counted this Book, the Song 
of Solomon, as exceedingly sacred. They 
hid it away until the child had come to 
maturity before he was allowed to read 
it, and it was to them the holy of holies 
of the Old Testament Scripture. These 
texts are also like the division of the an- 
cient tabernacle. There was first of all 
the outer court w^here the altar of sacrifice 
was to be found — and this must be con- 
stantly kept in mind, for no one can say 
"my beloved is mine" until he has passed 
the altar of sacrifice. It is only by faith 
in Jesus Christ that we are adopted into 
the membership of the family of God. 

The second division was the holy place, 
where was found the laver. Here the 
priests made themselves clean, and they 
could not minister in the presence of 
Jehovah until they had been made clean 
from all earthly defilement. This second 
text gives us the same thought, for here the 
writer changes the order exactly and says, 



The True Christian Life 393 

" I am my beloved/' instead of saying, "My 
beloved is mine." This is consecration 
and the consecration of a clean life. God 
will not accept or use that which is un- 
clean, and it is only as we come to the place 
where we allow him to have full control 
of our lives that we realize we are his. 

The third division of the tabernacle 
was the holy of holies, where the high 
priest made his way once a year that he 
might stand in the presence of Jehovah. 
In this third text, where the writer says, 
"I am mv beloved's, and his desire is 
towards me," we have come to the place 
in our experience w T here if his desire for us 
controls our living we are in the holy of 
holies indeed; where we can see him and 
enjoy his presence. 



"My beloved is mine." This is regen- 
eration. A minister once preaching to his 
congregation said, "Let every one say 
Jesus," and from all over the congrega- 
tion there came the music of his name. 



394 And Judas Iscariot 

"Now," said the minister, "Let all those 
who can, say ' my Jesus, 5 " and the response 
was not so hearty. A line ran through 
the congregation separating husband from 
wife and parents from children. It is only 
by faith in Christ and by the operation of 
the grace of God that we can experience 
this first text. Two things are true con- 
cerning this point. 

First : He wants to make better all that 
we have. Whatever may be our natural 
characteristics, he can make all that we 
have more beautiful. 

One day in Colorado I wanted to make 
a journey to the summit of Pike's Peak, 
only to find that throughout the entire day 
the train was chartered. I was turning 
away in despair when a railroad man said, 
"Why do you not go up at three o'clock 
to-morrow morning, for then," he said, 
"you can see the sun rise, and the sight is 
beautiful." So the next morning we started. 
Just as I was going on the train a railroad 
man said, "When you come to the sharp 
turn in the way as you go up, look over in 



The True Christian Life 395 

the Cripple Creek district and you will see 
a sight never to be forgotten." We climbed 
higher and higher, leaving the darkness 
at the foot of the mountain, until at last 
we came to the place indicated and I 
looked away, only to be intensely disap- 
pointed. The sight was almost common- 
place. As we pursued the journey upward 
finally we came to another place, where I 
heard some one give an exclamation of 
delight. As I looked in the same # direc- 
tion there was a marvelous transfor- 
mation. I could see before me a mountain 
which looked like a white-robed priest 
and another like a choir of angels and 
still another like a golden ladder reaching 
up into the skies, and all because the sun 
had risen upon the same scenery which a 
moment ago was uninteresting. If Christ 
could only thus take possession of our 
lives and become our Savior the transfor- 
mation would be quite as great. 

Second: He is ours to exercise in our 
behalf all that he is as Prophet, Priest and 
King. His office of Prophet relates to the 



396 And Judas Iscariot 

past, his office of King to the future when 
he shall be crowned King of kings and 
Lord of lords, but his office as Priest is 
now being fulfilled and he is my great 
High Priest to intercede for me with God 
and make explanation for all my weak- 
ness. 

Adelaide Proctor has given us the 
story of a young girl who was in a con- 
vent in France, whose special work it 
was to attend the portal and keep the 
altar clean. The war swept over France, 
the battle raged near the convent, many 
of the soldiers were killed and a num- 
ber injured. These were borne into the 
hospital that they might be nursed back 
to strength, and one of them was given to 
this young girl. Her nursing was success- 
ful, but he tempted her to leave the con- 
vent. They made their way to Paris, 
where she lost everything that makes life 
worth living. Then, just a wreck of her 
former self, she came back again to die 
within the sound of the convent bell. 
She touched the portal and instantly it was 



The True Christian Life 397 

opened, not by a girl such as she had been 
but by a woman such as she might have 
been — true and noble. She bore her 
in her arms to her old cell, nursed her 
back again to a semblance of her old 
strength, and then she slipped into her 
old place to answer the portal and keep 
the altar clean, and not a nun in all the 
convent ever knew that she had sinned. 
This is Christ's ministry in our behalf at 
this time. Making up for my weakness, 
answering for my defects, he is my High 
Priest. 

ii 

"/ am my beloved's" This is really 
better than the first text, because if he is 
mine, and faith is like a hand of the soul, 
then faith may grow weary and the result 
would be sad ; if I am his and he holds me 
then that is different. In John the tenth 
chapter, the twenty-eighth to the thirtieth 
verses, we have a picture of the true 
sheepf old and of the place where the child 
of God may rest, held in the hand of 



398 And Judas Iscariot 

God and of his dear son. "And I give 
unto them eternal life ; and they shall never 
perish, neither shall any man pluck them 
out of my hand. My father, which gave 
them unto me, is greater than all; and no 
man is able to pluck them out of my 
Father's hand. I and my Father are one." 
What a joy it is to know that we are his ! 

First: His by redemption, for we are 
redeemed not with corruptible things such 
as silver and gold, but with the precious 
blood of Christ. "Ye are not your own 
but ye are bought with a price. 55 

Second : We are his because God gave 
us to him; in his wonderful intercessory 
prayer Jesus said, "Thou gavest them to 
me," and again, "Ye are not our own. 55 

Third: We are his because again and 
again we have said so with our lips. How 
true the text is, then, in the light of the 
Scripture ! If this is true then what is con- 
secration? It is not giving God some- 
thing, for how could we give him that 
which is already his own? Consecration 
is simply taking our hands off and letting 



The True Christian Life 399 

him have his way with us in everything. 
The late George Macgregor used to 
tell the story of one of the bishops of the 
Church of England, who had an invalid 
wife and who never could surrender be- 
yond a certain point. He was unwilling to 
say that he would give up his wife, for God 
might call him to some mission he could 
not perform, and she had been the con- 
stant object of his care. But at last he 
won the victory and rose from his 
knees to say to his friend that the Surren- 
der should be complete, and then they 
went into the room of his invalid wife to 
tell her. With a sweet smile upon her face 
she said, "I have reached the same deci- 
sion and you can go to the ends of the earth 
if need be." That night the old bishop's 
wife died and when they went across the 
hall to tell the bishop there was no an- 
swer to their knock. When they entered 
the door they found the bishop with eyes 
closed, hands folded and heart still. He, 
too, had gone. God did not want to sepa- 
rate them. He wanted them to be united, 



400 And Judas Iscariot 

their wills surrendered to him and then 
he would send them in the same chariot 
up into heaven. 

in 

"J am my beloved's, and his desire is 
towards me." If we would know God's 
desire for us we have only to study the 
Scriptures, and if we should fulfill his 
desires we would have an experience of 
heaven upon earth. 

First: It is his desire that we should 
be holy. Ephesians 1:4, "According as 
he hath chosen us in him before the foun- 
dation of the world, that we should be holy 
and without blame before him in love." 
Holiness in not sinlessness, it is to the 
spiritual nature what health is to the 
physical life. In other words, God 
desires that we should be spiritually 
healthy, and this we cannot be with secret 
sins in our lives. 

Second : It is his desire that we should 
be sanctified. 1 Thessalonians 4: 3, "For 
this is the will of God, even your sanctifi- 



The True Christian Life 401 

cation, that ye should abstain from for- 
nication/ 5 

Sanctification is not sinlessness, it is 
separation. It is absolutely useless to 
think of pleasing God if we are in touch 
with the world in any way, for since the 
days of the crucifixion it has been against 
him. 

Third : It is his desire that we should 
present ourselves unto him in the sense 
above suggested — namely, that we should 
take our hands off from ourselves and 
allow him to direct and to control his 
own possession. Romans 12:1-2, "I 
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the 
mercies of God, that ye present your bodies 
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 
God, which is your reasonable service, 
and be not conformed to this world; but 
be ye transformed by the renewing of your 
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, 
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." 
Romans 6:13, "Neither yield ye your 
members as instruments of unrighteous- 
ness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto 



402 .And Judas Iscariot 

God, as those that are alive from the dead, 
and your members as instruments of 
righteousness unto God." In these ex- 
pressions the tense of the verb indicates 
that the action is to be definite and that 
it is to be once and for all. He has certain 
desires for us also expressed in the seven- 
teenth chapter of John. 

First: He desires that we should have 
joy. Joy is better than happiness ; happi- 
ness depends upon our surroundings and 
circumstances, joy has nothing to do with 
these but rather is the result of centering 
our affections upon him. 

Second : He desires that we should be 
one with him. By this I am sure he means 
that we should be one in our thought of 
sin, one in our desire for holiness, one in 
our efforts to reach the unsaved, and one 
in our longing in all things to be pure and 
true and good. 

Third : He desires to make us the object 
of his love. In this seventeenth chapter 
of John he tells us that the same love 
which he had for his son he has for those 



The True Christian Life 403 

of us who are in his Son. Thank God 
for this. If he must open the windows of 
heaven to speak forth his love for that 
Son and then has the same for us, oh, what 
joy it is to be a Christian ! 



lr 



JJBJP 



